How to invest in long-term education for your child (and all kids) – a parent’s perspective
Last Saturday, I was folding Jax’s faded soccer socks on the coffee table when the school levy flyer slid out of our local utility bill. Jax was cross-legged on the floor, gluing googly eyes to a Lego rocket he’d modified three times that week, and he looked up and asked why the paper said his teacher needed more money.
I thought about that parent-teacher conference back in October. Ms. Henderson, Jax’s 4th grade teacher, stayed 20 minutes past her last appointment to talk about how he spaces out during generic writing assignments but fills three notebook pages with notes about lunar rovers when no one makes him stop. She mentioned the textured gel pens he likes to use, because he hates the feel of ballpoint ink on his hands. She bought them with her own money, she said, after the classroom supply budget got cut 15% that year. I left that conference feeling lucky my son got a teacher who noticed that small thing about him, and guilty that I’d never stopped to ask what she needed to do her job.
I used to think investing in education meant opening a 529 plan for Jax, buying him extra science kits for Christmas, and driving 20 minutes to the better public library when our neighborhood one cut hours. I thought it was something I did just for my kid. That’s what most of the parenting content I see talks about, anyway: how to get your kid into the best preschool, how to save enough for college, how to give your kid every edge. That’s all important, but it’s not the whole story.
A month ago, Jax had his friend Milo over to play. Milo’s in the other 4th grade section, which has 32 kids – four more than the state recommended class size, because the district couldn’t afford to hire another teacher to split the section. Milo told me over juice boxes and goldfish crackers that he turns in his writing homework every week, but only gets it back graded once a month. Ms. Lopez doesn’t have time to get through all 32 papers every week, he said. That’s when it clicked for me: even if my son has a great teacher and a small enough class, his education is still shaped by what happens to every other kid in the district. When Milo doesn’t get the feedback he needs to get better at writing, that affects Milo’s future, and it affects the community Jax will grow up and work in.
Investing in education doesn’t have to mean writing a five-figure check or sending your kid to private school. There are small, low-effort things any parent or caregiver can do that add up, and they don’t get talked about as much.
I started asking Jax one question once a month, when we’re cleaning his backpack after school: “What does your class not have enough of that you need?” It takes 30 seconds, and teachers almost never ask for small things directly because they don’t want to bother parents. Last month, Jax told me they only have eight working magnifying glasses for 28 kids for science experiments. I emailed the PTA’s supply coordinator, put a small request on the district’s public donor page, and three other parents chipped in a few dollars each. We ordered 25 new magnifying glasses in three days, and they’re on the science shelf now. That’s an investment that took me 10 minutes total.
Another thing I do is mark all the school-related races and ballot questions first when I fill out my voter guide. I used to skip those, get tired after looking up the governor and senate candidates, and leave the school board and levy sections blank. Now I do those first. It takes five minutes to pull up a candidate’s website to see where they stand on teacher pay and class sizes, and those votes affect your kid every single day more than almost any other vote you cast.
If you have an extra hour a week, you can volunteer in the school library or help chaperone one field trip a year. I know a lot of parents work full time and can’t do that, so if you can’t give time, give $10 once a semester to your school’s classroom supply fund. That’s enough to buy a pack of notebooks or a set of markers for a teacher who’s paying for supplies out of their own check. You can also talk to your kid about why all kids need good schools, not just them – it’s a quick conversation to have on the drive to soccer practice, and it helps them understand that their school community is only as strong as its weakest spot.
I’m not here to say this solves every problem. The levy on our ballot this fall would raise property taxes by about $13 a month for the average house. I’m a single mom, I know what it’s like to stretch a paycheck to cover rent and groceries and gas. I get why some people are voting no. I don’t blame them. We don’t know if it will pass, even with all the people showing up to support it.
Last week, Jax came with me to the school board meeting to speak in favor of the levy. He held his Lego rocket the whole time, and when I finished talking, he held it up and said “I need more magnifying glasses so I can learn to be an astronaut.” A lot of people clapped. We left and got ice cream on the way home, and he got sprinkles all over his rocket.
Right now, the magnifying glasses are on the shelf in Jax’s classroom. Ms. Henderson still stays late to talk to parents. Jax still fills notebooks with notes about space. We don’t know what the future will bring, for Jax or for any of the kids in our district. But we keep doing the small things, one at a time. That’s the investment, isn’t it? Not just for my son, but for all the kids who will grow up to build the world we all live in.
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