Bak to Skool!

Like most kids in Virginia, my older son starts school this coming Tuesday. The school had sent out a list of supplies for us to buy to be ready for the school year, and my wife got up early in the morning when the “tax free shopping” weekend started to buy everything she needed at the local Wal-Mart. The stores were, of course, well-supplied with the necessary materials.

Today, the school held an introductory meeting for parents and children. The school hired a new teacher for my son’s class, but she seems OK so far according to my wife. The maddening part, though, was that the school handed out a flyer containing a list of MORE supplies. Of course, no one bothered to tell the stores this either. Plus, there was no more sales tax holiday! Naturally, even though they had our e-mail address, they had to wait until today to HAND us a flyer. Great resource conservation ethic, wouldn’t you say?

The scene at the store would have been funny if it weren’t so frustrating. The Wal-Mart quickly ran out of supplies. There were lots of angry parents holding a copy of the exact same supply list we had. Not to bust on anyone from another country, but it was crazier for those for whom English wasn’t a first language to understand what a “glue stick” was.

Well, we finally ended up going to a Michael’s store, especially since we overheard everyone else was planning to go to the neighboring Target. We did get what we needed, albeit it not at Wal-Mart prices. The store was calmer, anyway.

Your tax dollars at work. For those of you in Fairfax County, Virginia, vote for Steve Hunt, Paul Costantino, and Chris Braunlich for School Board at Large. In Springfield District, vote for Liz Bradsher. These candidates understand what ACCOUNTABILITY means, and want to control silliness in the budget (as well as make it more transparent for taxpayers).