When my son took Algebra 1, I remember the teacher discussing calculators, mentioning that a less expensive, (but still not cheap) scientific calculator would be sufficient for that year, but that the following year aa graphing calculator and pretty much all subsequent math classes, a graphing calculator would be needed. Purchase the $40 one this year and the $100-150 one next year, or purchase the more expensive one from the get go. They were picky about brands (and somewhat, but less so about models) because they wanted to be able to show how to work the calculator on the overhead without having to learn multiple ways for multiple different brands. No one ever talked to us about turning in points for the school.