Some Arizona classrooms have stopped giving out homework but it isn’t because it’s almost summer.
One elementary school in Mesa, AZ, actually ran out of paper and when one grandfather learned of the budget shortfall, he supplied them with much-needed supplies.
“Golly, a school without paper is like a school without kids,” said Walter Buse. “What good is it?”
Buse said last week his grandson stopped bringing homework from Falcon Hill Elementary School.
“Normally on a Monday, he gets his homework for a week and I thought, ‘well OK,’” Buse said.
But when he heard the same story Tuesday, then again Wednesday, he began to wonder if his grandson was pulling a fast one.
“I thought, ‘well if he’s like me then I know what he’s doing,’” Buse said.
Buse went to the school and got a surprising answer.
“She said, ‘sorry we don’t have any paper, we’ve used up our quota for the year and we can’t buy anymore,’” Buse said.
Mesa Public Schools said a situation like this can happen from time to time as schools inch toward the end of the year.
“It’s a tight year for us for sure, so you get to the end of the year when things are tight, you might run out,” said Scott Thompson, head of finance at Mesa Public Schools.
Thompson said schools are allocated a budget and how it’s spent falls on the principal.
He said a measure that would have increased funding to the district failed in November.
The state has also failed to invest in education.
“That has been cut for many years since the recession and we really desperately need that money back,” Thompson said.
Not to be discouraged by bureaucratic red tape, Buse went shopping and dropped off a shipment of paper last week.
“You’d think I carried in a basket of gold the way they acted at the office, so I knew it was appreciated,” Buse said.
Buse and the district hope others follow suit, filling in the gaps so the children don’t slip through.
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