Reply #1: Our niece teaches art in a very underfunded school system

[csziggy]

Last year she got $300 for art supplies for five classes of 25 students each. That is $12 per student for materials for the entire year. The parents' association managed to get her more money through their fund raising and she has managed to collect supplies from family and friends.

For instance, my husband works for a printing/copy business. Their wide printers use high quality paper on rolls. They cannot use the very ends of the rolls and often throw them away. He saved them and she got yards of 36" wide paper to use. He also managed to save odd bits of colored paper left over from printing jobs.

Maybe some of the parents can start trying to collect stuff like that for the kids to use? Or do as the parents' association did and do fund raising to benefit some of the school programs?