To the editor:

I went with my little Sophia to purchase school supplies. I am not complaining about the school not supplying these. I accept the free market. While I prefer that families pay for these through taxes, I can accept that Lawrence families must purchase these items from private merchants out of their after-tax income.

My point is that the market in this particular case is very inefficient. It seems that school supplies specified by the school district fail to correspond well with the merchandising of these items by merchants. The “2 fine-point blue dry erase markers” provides a good example. Packages of four multiple colors medium-point markers were as close as the first store got to this spec. What am I supposed to do with the extra red, green and black markers?

As I stood straining over the marker section of the school supply aisle, I wondered if perhaps I had become obsessed with the precision with which I follow directions due to gazing too long at detailed federal grant application instructions. I also admit to an old school-induced anxiety about following directions. Another parent saw me squinting at the markers. She said she had visited every store in town, without luck, looking for these markers merchandised in quantities of one or two in blue only. Unless we are willing to pay for supplies through tax increases, I think consumers of school supplies would benefit from some Soviet-style central planning between merchants and the school district.

Rich Minder,

Lawrence