07/21/2026
Through no fault of their own, far too many people really don't know why the school supply drives are needed. When you encounter those questions, be ready to graciously embrace the opportunity with answers. The following is an answer I recently shared with a friend who asked those "whys.":
In NC (and a lot of states), it's primarily because state legislators are funneling more and more of tax dollars for education to private schools, leaving public schools struggling more and more each year to have sufficient funds for everything. Further compound that with many of the children attending public schools come from families who can't afford $150-$200 worth of school supplies, plus school clothes for growing children, medical expenses for when the children get sick or have chronic illnesses, and their other household expenses, etc.
Most of what you see decorating classrooms teachers paid for out of their own pockets. (Most people would be amazed at how long an educator can make something last.) Many of the school supplies were purchased out of their own pockets, too. Educator pay is pathetic for what they do. Many work second jobs to make ends meet, especially the first 5-6 years or so in education. Yet they're spending their own money to try to help children have a successful educational year in a welcoming environment that's competing with media that trains our brains to have short attention spans and want constant stimulation and entertainment. And this doesn't even get into the emotional concerns, sometimes trauma, that many children are carrying on top of the usual childhood pressures.
A lot of kids in schools are just your average kids facing the pressures of growing up in an often hostile world, looking for where they belong. But whether we like to believe it or not, there are also parents who just don't care enough to buy their children school supplies. There are parents whose daughters are getting impregnated by the mother's boyfriend and the mother is visiting the boyfriend in jail afterwards. Dad is not stepping in because he's long gone, if it was ever known which boyfriend was the daughter's father. There are elementary children being used as drug mules by the adults in their household. There are foster children not fully understanding why their parent was arrested and now they're living with strangers they're afraid to trust. And that's just a few of multitudes of horrific examples we don't like to think about. (And those are not made up examples, they're ones I've seen myself.) But teachers, school counselors, administrators, school social workers, nurses, etc., are all pulling together to try to spot those things, get children the help they need, meet the children's needs that they can because they know the path out of that cycle and out of poverty runs through the school house.
Long answer, I know. Saddest part is that it's only the tip of the iceberg. Like others, I sometimes feel annoyed that school supplies and food are being bought and provided by volunteers for families who already receive government assistance and are spending it irresponsibly, but I always come back to the same thought - the child has no choice in that. It's not the child's fault. And if my filling a book bag with 3-ring binders, paper, pencils, etc., helps make one of those children's day brighter and path out of that life a little easier, I am so incredibly grateful to God that He has given me that capacity and opportunity.
