During this past Hot Labor Summer, I had kind of hoped to see educators striking more in the fall. Maybe we’ll get there soon. The truth is that public education in this country is in crisis and has been for a while now. I was briefly a classroom teacher several years ago (pre-panini) and it was very bad. One of the worst things about teaching (to me) is the expectation that teachers should supply their own classrooms. Look, that makes sense for artisans or mechanics to buy their own tools, to a degree. A mechanic can use the same wrench for twenty years. But most of the supplies teachers need are things that kids use up–paper, markers, glue sticks. So the cost of supplying your own classroom adds up quickly because you have to replace these things over and over. Teachers are also paid less than their similarly-educated peers. When the Huffington Post brought out this list of things teachers ask for on wishlists or pay for themselves, I nodded in recognition. I, too, had to pay for basic things like printer ink, pencils, and paper.
If you haven’t had a child in a public school or worked in one yourself, you might assume that most teachers are given “the basics” — but the teacher wish lists you may have seen online tell a very different story. Some schools and districts are well-funded, down to the electric pencil sharpeners, but a shocking number are not.
Just some of the supplies teachers have had to pay for: We asked our HuffPost Parents Facebook community about the items people are surprised to learn that teachers often have to buy for their classrooms. Here’s what they told us:
Fans: “Most of our building isn’t air conditioned, and we return on August 14th.” —Heather Mcalpin-Berkemeir, high school English teacher, Cincinnati, Ohio
Furniture and books: “Bookcases, shelves, hundreds of books for a classroom library.” —Kathie Hilliard
Technology and accessories: “A stand for a projector, extension cords, a computer for a student.” —Merry Mc @merrymclellan
Cleaning supplies: “Wipes for messes” —Louise Dewaele
A desk and chair: “Somehow not provided and we aren’t allowed to use our $75 in supply money to purchase. Also, can’t use that money for tissues, sanitizer or basic needs for students.” —Rebecca Nitterauer McCord
Carpet: “I desperately need a new one this year, and I am not allowed to use my district provided funds.” —Sarah Underwood
Storage: “Storage bins, posters, curtains, and sometimes furniture.” —Kim Mecum
Decor: “Bulletin board paper/borders, incentive charts/stickers/prizes, any decorations” —Denise Iannascola Matarante; “Anything that makes it more ‘homey’” —Britany Tuetken
Food: “Snacks for students” —Catherine Sullivan
They list even more things in the article; basically any office supply you can think of, chances are, teachers are paying for it out of pocket. My story in regard to teaching and money is so absurd that it could have been a script for a movie. While school starts in August, many teachers don’t get their first paycheck for six weeks, until October. That meant that I did not have enough money for first and last month’s rent, and I had just left home, so I stayed with my friend’s parents until I got my first paycheck. Then I moved into a rented room, in a house, that I shared with other people and an undisclosed but extremely high number of cats. That was all I could afford. Despite the fact that I was working in one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, the district provided me no supplies. None at all. Not even pencils. I was given an annual budget of $300 to be spent only on “enrichment’ materials, not basics.
Then, shortly before the first day of school, an administrator made a comment to me about how barren my classroom looked. She implied that it seemed like I didn’t care about my students because I did not have decorative poster boards and crepe paper everywhere. (A student from Russia told me he liked how plain the classroom looked because it reminded him of home. Which is perhaps the sweetest compliment I have ever received–and the most accidentally backhanded. Kids will be that way.) I had to ask my mom for money to stock my classroom with essential supplies–paper, pencils, glue, scissors, markers, a first aid kit. For over 70 students, it cost $1000. If my mom hadn’t been able to help me, I would have had to take on credit card debt to supply my classroom, because it was six weeks out until my first paycheck. Meanwhile, the administrators at my school each made $250-$400K a year. The money is going in the wrong direction in our schools: away from the students and away from the teachers.
You can help support teachers with supplies for their classrooms at DonorsChoose.
Teachers are not entirely respected in the US, and the need to pay for your classroom out of pocket is one of the ways the lack of respect shows. Here’s a huge THANK YOU to educators who help our kids in spite of this!! We love and appreciate you.
I come from a family of teachers. The school supplies and “accidentally too much food, which coincidentally is convenient to kids who would otherwise skip breakfast and/or lunch” is sadly familiar and infuriating. Hugs and strength to you all!
Respect to the teachers doing this.
No, this is not normal. Not even in many countries considered ‘Third World’.
Thanks for raising awareness, Carina.
Our state superintendent wants to cut 47 million from the education budget. He thinks China is funding our schools to undermine the government. He is not qualified for the job. He is a national embarrassment.
Very few higher ups in school systems are qualified. Many haven’t been in a classroom or in one for over 10-15 years. I retired at 30 years. The reason was because, the school district I was in, harassed the the teachers who were at the top of the pay scale and at retirement age. I refused to be the one to be harassed. I can’t even guess how much money I spent in those years for the classroom. I taught in the high school. I truly miss the students but my mental health was more important. I can’t imagine what it is like now since I’ve been retired almost 20 years.
I feel really bad for the teachers in my district and we are in a pretty much all middle or upper class district but our state is one of the worst for funding education and teachers pay. The teachers still spend a lot on top of what we as parents have to provide and it’s a long list every year. I also get fliers for fundraisers almost weekly and we are never told where exactly all of this fundraiser money is going. The admin has been a mess the last few years and there has been high turnover, the super as far as I’m concerned has no clue what actually happens in the day to day because decisions have been made that don’t take into account how it will actually affect the children who should be the number one priority. I want out of this district but unfortunately with interest rates what they are right now there is no chance in us moving. Bottom line, yes public schools are a mess and the money is going to the wrong people, what little of it that our red state actually gives to the schools anyway.
I’m a retired teacher, and I spent a LOT of money on things for my classroom, including giant size plastic jars of hard pretzels for kids who were hungry, no kidding. But thank God I never spent $1,000 at once. Even using the dollar store, supplies added up. My daughter wanted to go into teaching, and God forgive me, I encouraged her to think of something else. She now makes 6 figures as a fund raiser for a college.
Nikki, retired teacher here, too. I spent about $2-4k PER YEAR on my classroom. The supplies we were given to start school never covered anything more than limited writing paper (usually lasted about 2 mos), 1 pencil for each child, 1 pink eraser (that I was supposed to cut in half!!) for ever 2 students, 1 pr of scissors for every 2 kids (and never any left handed ones), 1 pack of 10 color crayons (never one that had all the “flesh tones” of course!), 4 boxes of Kleenex, and desks/chairs (half of which wobbled and usually needed some repair before school started). Oh, and a jammed manual pencil sharpener. “Requests” for paper towels/soap at the sink were filled as soon as the janitor got enough supplies. And don’t get me started on not enough (or current) books. We could usually get wobbly bookcases, you were on your own to fill the shelves for a class “library”.
We had to put in “requests” for colored construction paper for the kids and our bulletin boards; you were out of luck if the color(s) you wanted were gotten to first (as there wasn’t enough to go around), and forget corrugated borders.
We were given an allotment of 100 Xerox pages per MONTH. Try working with that number when you aren’t given workbooks the kids can write in (they usually had to share), and you don’t have enough writing paper to last the month.
So…. what do you do? You supplement. Sure, I maxed out my cc cards at times, but what else could I do? I taught at a school with low-income kids (95% of the pop. were on free/reduced fee breakfast/lunches) and the parents barely spoke English, let alone could donate to my classroom. And yes, I also kept things like oranges, string cheese and such in class for kids who came late and couldn’t get breakfast.
I was a bit of a strange teacher – I worked boarding schools (where we had so much money it was insane and if we didn’t the kids parents’ would spend a few grand randomly). Then I worked in a poor charter school in the south.
Admins are the problem. Their salaries, their lack of actual work, and their accommodation of parents instead of teachers. If you eliminated their salaries there would be plenty of money. Because I was so good, and doing them a favor by filling in, when an admin asked me about my walls I told them to get off her fat butt and get to work. I literally made that woman cry by explaining her lack of worth as a human being and then clean gum off the bottom of desks as I watched and let her know what she missed. She certainly wasn’t capable of prepping math classes like me so she could do manual labor.
I tell this story because teachers need help. I could only do this because I’m independently wealthy. I can’t imagine teaching where I was actually subject to the whims of administration. They need to be working harder than teachers and as a parent now I tell the same story to admins trying to get donations from me.
My son just graduated from college and it’s been his dream to be a high school math teacher. He’s applying for credential programs. I’ve already figured my husband and I will be paying to set up his classroom. Luckily with older kids you don’t need as much cutesy stuff as with elementary. It’s truly shameful that our country doesn’t pay teachers what they’re worth, and that they’re forced to use their own money for basic teaching supplies.
It’s astounding how much we expect from teachers, both time wise and money wise. And I know some teachers who are not allowed to use donors choose because their school or district forbids it.
And even when you look at Donors Choose, you can see a clear funding issue. Some teachers are clearly asking for supplemental materials for science experiments etc (which is great!), and some teachers are asking for dry erase markers.
Our PTA does reimburse teachers for classroom expenses – I think we increased it to 250/teacher this year – but very few teachers utilize that to be honest. I’ve only reimbursed two so far this year. And 250 isn’t going to get a new teacher very far (but I think the more established teachers really appreciate it.) We also have extensive school supply lists that cover a lot of things listed in the story but that also puts the burden on parents. My particular area is sandwiched between two of the wealthiest counties in the country, so there is a lot of crossover and people in my area can generally afford those lists. That’s not true for other areas of my county.
Besides, that just puts the burden on the PTA or parents. Our PTA does very well with fundraising in general so that 250/teacher reimbursement is a smaller line item in our budget (it used to be 150 and we increased it a few years ago just because we could.) but not every PTA has that luxury. And then you have to ask – why are parents funding this? I mean I don’t think teachers should either, but I live in a small town where the police department has a Tesla and just got a new electric Ford 150 or whatever those new trucks are. Maybe some of that money could have gone to buying school supplies for teachers?
Reading this as a Scandinavian: this just sounds utterly insane! Not just that this is asked of the teachers at all, but that it is normalized. I didn’t know this until today – and I am honestly deeply shocked.
The purpose of underpaying teachers and underfunding schools is to destroy the public school system. The purpose of destroying the public school system is to move public money in private schools for the purpose of resegregation. Those students who are of undesirable backgrounds will receive little to no education, because you don’t need to be educated to work the menial jobs that will be designated for them.
💯 support this! I am not a teacher but former SLP and worked in schools for 5 years. The lack of supplies is just one on a list of so many things that are lacking in the work environment/culture that make teachers feel disrespected and unappreciated. Add to that, having to move your entire classroom contents almost every due to building needs, freezing/swealtering temps throughout the year, thankless duties like marching kids through snowy sidewalks to the bus with a walky talky squawking at you. Using student bathrooms and facilities, no tissues, etc to be found anywhere. I remember being brand new and wondering why some of the veteran teachers were so crabby about meetings, extra duties etc. Over time I totally got it, you can keep a “can-do” attitude and focus on the kids for a while but it takes a lot of mental strength to ignore all the bullshit around you. I know the above seem like some petty shit but teachers have Masters degrees and are held to such high standards and under such scrutiny, shouldn’t have to be spending their planning period plunging toilets, just sayin
I teach at a community college and I still buy things out of pocket, either because of the numbers of hoops and time it takes to get a purchase order approved or because sometimes we’re flat out told we can’t use our budget for things. When I taught k-12 I bought stuff all the time.
My daughter is a teacher. The amount she spends per week on her kids is astounding, and most of it is on food because the kids she teaches are in a low income district and really do not eat (she has lunch with a different kid 2-3 times a week & when all have had lunch she buys pizza for all then starts over…plus the snacks she brings in or uncrustables-her kids love them). Point is, she is doing this because she loves the kids and what she is doing as do so many others. It is so frustrating to hear certain people bash teachers and it is getting so bad. Teachers spend a lot of their own money. They do not ask for reimbursement from parents. They teach, discipline, care for, fix boo boos, etc other peoples children only to hear abuse for having summers off forgetting they work sometimes 16 hour days, every day or they are brainwashing our kids.
Your daughters school sounds like my sons school – title one in the south. Free breakfast and lunch is provided by the school, but there’s a 4 hr 15~ minute gap between them. His teacher asks for extra snacks often because the kids are hungry.
Her wish list at the beginning of the year is just depressing. Kleenex and Clorox wipes, basically. Oh and band-aids! School doesn’t even give her those.
When my kids were in elementary school, in addition to school supplies, each student needed to bring a 6 pack of paper towels and a 12 pack of tissues at the beginning of the year. I started sending a $50 Walmart gift card along with that for any extra supplies. I know not everyone can do that but those that can would do it if they realized it was needed. Even picking up an extra pack of juice boxes when they are on sale was welcome. Sending in an extra few school supplies, even just one box of crayons would go a long way. But then I am sure funding would be cut even more because
parents are picking up some slack.
I am a teacher and live in Canada…similar situation here. We buy our own teaching resources, classroom decor, books, puzzles, center toys, shelving, storage etc. We are given a desk/chair and desk supplies and there are school educational resources we can share. The students bring in their school supplies but many aren’t able to. By the end of the year I have spent about $1000-$1500 out of my own pocket on my students and classroom. Sometimes more!
Yeah, but you make a lot more in Canada than non union state teachers in the US. I have friends in the US who make 35-40k, 32k after taxes who have to provide all of these supplies, on top of students loana, car payments sometimes a mortgage, I have one friend 20 year art teacher with master’s degree renting due to lack of pay in NC. Also, my bf was making 35k as a full time math professor in NC for 10 years no raises because it was a state university, moved to Ontario and now is on the Sunshine list 110k a year.
In my state the teachers have unions but it is illegal for any public paid person, police, fire fighters, teachers, to strike. A good way to lose your job.
My daughter started teaching at a new school this year, she is just a 3rd year teacher. She is young, single and doesn’t have a lot of disposable income as you can imagine. We live in Indiana and our state is not the greatest to our teachers….the school where she teaches is wonderful and provides many things, but had no desk (!) for her. They were going to scrounge one up, but she ended up buying a standing desk of her own. It wasn’t cheap….plus everything else she has to buy to start the year. It’s hard! Much love to all our teacher friends everywhere!!
This is such a shame on our nation. Like any profession related to care work done by women for free in the past, teaching is devalued, and teachers are supposed to do it out of the love in their hearts, not in order to make a decent living. Awful.
This is exactly why I always give my children’s teachers gift cards to target. I also try and send in any classroom supplies they teachers ask for.
Its so unfair that they have to use them for school supplies, but I hope it helps!
Prime Days has great deals on cleaning supplies and school supplies! Buy up and drop off at a local school 🙂 Every year I get my sis a box of copy paper and help freshen up her classroom library, every little bit helps. The system is broken, but do what you can to help.
Paper products, School and office supplies were always holiday gifts I bought for the teachers instead of ornaments. I saw first hand how expensive it was for my aunt who was a teacher to make sure her classroom kids didn’t go without. It really helps if there is an organized fundraising parents group like a pta or pto they can help a lot with the costs also, it’s not just up to the teachers. (Also businesses love to donate product even if they might be stingy with funds, ask)
Everything you said. 28 years as a science teacher in public and private schools. If you have been in a classroom, most of the things in the room were paid for out of pocket and teachers can only write off $200 for taxes (unlike my therapist friend who can write off her Range Rover). I paid for almost all of the science supplies I used for daily labs until the last years of teaching when I was able to secure more funds for lab materials (bc I worked in a wealthy district).
I’ve spent much of my career working in schools — though not as a teacher. I think many Americans would be surprised to realize how different one US school can be from another, and how both extremes might be very different from what we picture when we envision “a typical American public school”. Not one of the schools that I’ve worked in had functioning air conditioning. Many did not have consistent heating systems. At more than one school, students were forbidden to drink from the water fountains because lead had been found in the water samples.
Teachers often do heroic jobs making do with what they have. Our children deserve so much more than what they often have access to. When I see spreadsheets of test scores comparing schools, I always wonder if people realize that in addition to actual instruction, the scores are also measuring the differences between groups of kids who, for the most part are well-fed and physically comfortable, with groups of kids who are not.
It’s great when teachers create cheerful classrooms and bring in snacks for hungry kids. But they shouldn’t have to. I think about our priorities as a country — and it’s horrifying to understand how far the well-being of kids and their teachers seems to be from the top of that list.
Parents of school-age children: If you’re buying gifts for your child’s teacher, that’s so sweet of you, but skip the best-teacher mugs and apple-themed ornaments and homemade baked goods. Gift cards are the way to go. And I regularly bought disinfecting wipes and boxes of tissues at Costco for my kids’ classrooms in elementary school, but wasn’t as connected to their high school teachers. I regret now not checking with those teachers about what they needed.
It’s disgraceful how poorly equipped some district classrooms are. My sisters are/were teachers, as is my brother and several nieces. When one niece was teaching in a Philly school, we bought bushels of apples and oranges for the students so they had fresh fruit for the winter holidays. And pencils and copy paper and notebooks, so my niece didn’t have to buy them herself.
Our PTA sends out a spreadsheet each year with the teacher’s favorite things listed – it includes favorite colors, where they like to shop, favorite restaurants, what they want for their classroom, what they like generally, and what they do NOT want. I don’t want to say that EVERY single teacher says no to coffee mugs or yeti knock offs, but the vast majority do.
But even for GCs, make sure you know the teacher likes where you are getting the GC for, or get it for a store like Target or Amazon. My SIL teaches in a well off private school, and one year she got a GC to starbucks from the class. It wasn’t a small GC – I think it was 500 or something. My SIL does not drink coffee or any caffeinated drink really besides Coke, lol. She and my brother took my nieces there for breakfast every saturday for MONTHS lol.
I always do Amazon or Target unless I know the teacher is local and has a specific local store they like (for example, for my second grader’s teacher last year I got her a GC to the local bookstore where I know she shops frequently.) But otherwise, Amazon or Target. they can use it for classroom supplies, or they can use it for something personal, entirely up to them.
I had a reeds-drive for the band teacher at my son’s K-8 school when I realized she is only allowed to give each child one new reed PER YEAR. These are kids who are just learning to play and who chew on the reeds, chip the reeds, accidentally bang their instrument into things and split the reeds. I wondered why everyone sounded so extra squeaky at a concert and she told me about the lack of reeds. Depending on the instrument, those can get expensive! But my MIL has season tickets to the symphony and has lots of other friends who enjoy music, opera, and the arts. She, they, and I bought and donated hundreds of dollars worth of reeds to the school.
It’s shameful how we don’t pay teachers what they are worth and how they have to spend their own money on supplies. My daughter loves kids, but she didn’t even consider going into teaching because of this. Her college friends who did it right out of school didn’t last more than a couple of years. Instead she’s in nursing school and is going to be an L and D nurse and maybe eventually a midwife. Nurse don’t make as much as they should either, but at least they don’t have to buy supplies for their patients.
Middle school teacher of 15 years… It is so frustrating when students don’t bring their supplies (for a variety of reasons) because without them, they can’t really participate. The school doesn’t have enough money/resources to provide for the insane number of kids who don’t have the supplies, but then the teacher gets in trouble if the kids are just sitting there not doing the work, soooooo we have to go out and buy supplies for the kids. The kids use/abuse them and/or don’t give them back, so we have to buy more. Great. It’s the definition of vicious cycle. I also am irritated as a parent that I have to buy reams of paper for the school district – that’s on our supply list. What the heck are they spending money on that my husband and I have to buy printer paper for the school? I really do see schools spending money on stupid stuff and leaving no money for stuff that matters. I can see both sides of the school funding debate. There’s no easy answer/magic bullet….if there was, we wouldn’t be in this place. It’s easy to compare the US to other countries around the world. We have our own unique problems and a HUGE population compared to the magical Finland. (I did a quick search the US had 73.8 million kids to educate in 2021 while Finland had over 500 thousand.).
I don’t know how normal this is, but I was working at a school when it was decided to give individual school principals more control over budgets that were specific to their own schools. So principals in older schools ended up having to use large chunks of their money for things like building repairs, while principals in newer schools were able to budget for things like art supplies, resource teachers and printer paper.
I agree teaching is a calling. We make about 30% less than similarly credentialed professionals (ie bachelor, masters, professional credentialing). I receive $110 including tax a year from my department for supplies and I can write $250 a year off of my federal taxes. I usually spend more than those two breaks combined. The amount varies from year to year given what I need to buy.
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I often supply tissues, pencils, paper, glue sticks, scissors, etc. Most of my students also have no consideration for the supplies and will destroy things. One kid wrecked one of my personal box fans (no AC and the school gets up to 89°F) because he was bored. His parents refused to pay for a replacement. My school’s PTG offers $100 per teacher to offset the cost of teachers’ purchases, but they have denied the reimbursement in the past. One year they even said “we need to focus on supporting the kids, not the teachers” and wouldn’t help with supplies that went directly to students. I have had to adapt projects to becoming 100% digital solely because parents refuse to buy a poster board. They feel the school should supply it. A number of parents won’t even buy notebooks and folders for their kids and I work in a district where parents can afford it (one of the highest income towns in the state). On the other hand, our top administrators make bank. They keep making up new positions for top admin with salaries of $150k plus and then won’t fund teaching positions where it is needed.
The issue with striking is that many states actually took that right away. To my knowledge: if teachers strike, they lose their certification permanently in that state. Those states are often the severely underfunded and pay their teachers very little.