Opinion
Education Funding Letter to the Editor

Cincinnati Teacher: Don’t Buy School Supplies at Wal-Mart

September 09, 2014 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

To the Editor:

The leading indicator of school performance—poverty—affects nearly one-quarter of all children in the United States. This is unacceptable.

And yet Wal-Mart—the nation’s largest employer and the workplace of many parents—pays many of its workers absurdly little, and some need food stamps and donations to get by. A Canton, Ohio, Wal-Mart, in fact, set up an annual Thanksgiving food drive asking workers to donate food for co-workers who couldn’t afford Thanksgiving dinner. That’s chutzpah. No one who works full time should have to struggle to put food on the table.

Parents and teachers know what it takes for children to be strong, happy, and successful, and that’s nearly impossible to achieve for families caught in Wal-Mart’s low-road business model.

Compounding this, the Walton family, which owns the majority share of Wal-Mart stock, spends millions of dollars on campaigns to divert public education dollars to private operators of charter schools, which have not proven by any stretch of the imagination to be the solution for better student performance.

My younger students love Dr. Seuss. In The Lorax they read: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

There is no question that we can and must do better for our neighbors and children. It starts with the support of the community.

This school year, please join me in taking a small step and showing our commitment to good jobs that provide for our families and our students. Don’t buy your school supplies at Wal-Mart. Show our nation’s largest employer that, to earn our business, it must value and respect workers.

Tom Frank

Steel Drum and Choir Director

James N. Gamble Montessori High School

Cincinnati, Ohio

The author is the second vice president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers.

A version of this article appeared in the September 10, 2014 edition of Education Week as Cincinnati Teacher: Don’t Buy School Supplies at Wal-Mart

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding How States Are Rethinking Where School Funding Should Go
There's constant debate over the best way to allocate state money to schools. Here are some ways states are reworking their school funding.
7 min read
Conceptual illustration of tiny people is planning the personal budget, accounting, analysis.
Muhamad Chabibalwi/iStock/Getty
Education Funding A Court Ordered Billions for Education. Why Schools Might Not Get It Now
The North Carolina Supreme Court is considering arguments for overturning a statewide order for more school funding.
6 min read
A blue maze with a money bag at the end of the maze.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding Schools Want More Time to Spend COVID-19 Aid for Homeless Students
Senators want to give districts more time to spend COVID relief funds for students experiencing homelessness.
4 min read
New canvas school bags hanging on the backs of empty classroom student chairs in a large modern classroom
iStock/Getty Images
Education Funding ESSER Isn't the Only School Funding Relief That's Disappearing Soon
Federal relief aid, policies to prevent schools from losing enrollment-based funding, and support for vulnerable families are expiring soon.
10 min read
Vector illustration of a businessman's hand holding a slowly vanishing dollar sign.
iStock/Getty