Teachers dig deep into their own pockets to pay for supplies, study finds

Nearly all public school teachers in the US report paying for school supplies with their own money, according to a study from the National Center of Education Statistics, and few receive any form of reimbursement. 

|
Davie Hinshaw/The Charlotte Observer/AP
Pencils sit at the ready on a desk at Bruns Academy, seen on July 24, 2017 in Charlotte, N.C. Teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies are able to reduce their taxable income by up to $250 – but many report spending beyond that limit.

Every year Anna Graven dips into her modest teacher salary and spends her own money to buy bulletin boards, pencils, paper, highlighters, and tissues for her high school students in Oklahoma City. So do almost all of her colleagues across the nation.

Nearly all public school teachers report digging into their pockets to pay for school supplies, spending nearly $480 a year, far more than the federal $250 tax deduction available to teachers, according to a study by the National Center of Education Statistics released Tuesday.

The findings come as teachers across the country are walking out of classrooms to protest low pay and demand pay raises. Helping teachers pay for classroom supplies was a key demand during the Arizona teachers' strike.

Ninety-four percent of public school teachers say they spent their own money on notebooks, pens, and other supplies in the 2014-15 school year without reimbursement, according to the study. The average amount spent was $479. About 44 percent spent $250 or less, while 36 percent spent $251 to $500.

Teachers who spend their personal money on children's classroom needs are able to reduce their taxable income by $250. That amounts to roughly $30-$60 in savings for each teacher, according to the American Federation of Teachers, a relatively small sum that is still regarded as a token of appreciation by educators.

Teachers pushed back strongly last year when the tax bill passed by the House called for eliminating the deduction altogether. The Senate version of the bill, meanwhile, sought to raise the deduction to $500. In the end, the two chambers reached a compromise, and the deduction remained unchanged.

Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, said Tuesday that the study demonstrates a lack of funding of public schools in America.

"Educators want to help children; that is why as long as their kids lack the essentials, educators will continue to dig deep, while fighting the defunding and underinvestment that created this crisis in the first place," Ms. Weingarten said in a statement. "There is no other job I know where the workers subsidize what should be a cost borne by an employer as a necessary ingredient of the job."

The study also found that teachers in high-poverty schools were more likely to spend personal money on school supplies. Eighty-six percent of teachers in schools that don't participate in free or reduced lunch school program said they paid for classroom needs, while around 94 percent to 95 percent of teachers in schools that did participate in the programs said they paid for classroom needs.

Ms. Graven, who teachers American literature at an Oklahoma City high school, says the school provides very limited supplies and she and her colleagues are forced to pay out of pocket.

"We do what we need to do for our students and for us to be able to do our job," Graven said. "It would be less of a burden if we were also paid a livable wage."

Graven said a teacher like her, with a bachelor's degree and 18 years of experience, is earning around $42,000 a year.

At times Graven has contemplated going into a new profession that pays better.

"It's not an easy job, it's very stressful and you think, 'Is it all worth it?'" Graven said. "And then there will be that student that will make you realize that it is worth it."

Some teachers have even gone online to launch crowdfunding campaigns. The website GoFundMe.com has tens of thousands of campaigns where teachers or activists are raising money to help pay for classroom supplies, according to Heidi Hagberg, a spokeswoman for the site. She said the company has even compiled a guidebook to help teachers build effective campaigns.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Teachers dig deep into their own pockets to pay for supplies, study finds
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2018/0516/Teachers-dig-deep-into-their-own-pockets-to-pay-for-supplies-study-finds
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe