I had never paid much attention to the Support Education license tag until the day I received the Middle School Mentor Teacher of the Year Award in May 2011. Every time I looked at the license plates of stopped cars in front of me I would think skeptically "Here goes another license plate for one more cause... I wonder if the extra money collected by the DMV every year gets to the cause it supports? And, how much money is wasted on marketing dollars instead of going to the actual cause?" I never gave much thought of owning any specialized license plate and kept driving.

On the evening I received the Mentor Teacher of the Year Award, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that all the money collected through the purchase and renewal of the Support Education tag ($20.00) stays in Palm Beach County to support students and teachers in the classroom. On average the Education Foundation awards over $40,000/year for innovative classroom grants and additional funds are used towards teacher training and professional development. Knowing that the money raised by the sale of the tags remains in Palm Beach County was a reassurance that it is absolutely worth getting a Support Education license tag. 

You should also know that my Support Education license tag is not made up of a combination of random numbers and letters, but consists of letters that spells as accurately as the tag will allow me (since only 7 letters are allowed), the subject that I teach. Every year, on the first day of school I ask my 6th graders to respond to 10 questions under the heading "Everything you ever want to know about Madame ANAND...." The questions range from, what is my country of origin? How many languages do I speak? How tall am I? This year I added the added question... What kind of license tag do I have and what does it say? (Hint: 7 letters)

When we discuss the answer I reveal to them that I am a proud owner of a Support Education tag and my license plate says FRNCAIS (FRANÇAIS is the accurate way to spell it) since French is what I teach. I explain to my class, full of 11 year-olds, the many wonderful programs the dollars raised from the purchase of the tag goes to support in our learning community and how the Mentor Teacher of the Year Award motivated me to purchase the tag. They have responded favorably to my pitch and feel that it was the right gesture on my part to buy the tag in order to support public education in Palm Beach County. Rarely do Middle School students agree with teachers... but they all agree buying a Support Education tag is worth every penny!