Out of pocket spending
A look at how much teachers spend out of pocket on school supplies.
A teacher is many professions — a scholar, a leader, an inventor, a sage. In the 2012–2013 school year, 99.5 percent of public school teachers in the United States collectively spent $1.6 billion of their personal money on classroom supplies, while individually spending about $500 on average, according to a survey by the National School Supply and Equipment Association. A teacher, in this case, is also an investor.
While $500 may be the average, Masako White, Japanese, ESL, and Read 180 teacher spent “way over $1,000” of her personal money last year to purchase a class set of textbooks for her Japanese 1 and 2 classes.
“I feel that it is a necessity [to use my own money],” White said. “I purchased a classroom set of textbooks mainly because the school district will not provide [the foreign language] classroom[‘s] sets [of books]. It would be wonderful if the school had a budget for things like computer programs and field trips, but just as long [as] the students are taken care of, that’s money well spent.”
Laurel Batchelor, English teacher, spends over $600 out-of-pocket every year. She purchases every film she screens to her Film Studies class and restocks her classroom with markers, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, and other supplies. Her personal money also goes towards printer ink at home because the majority of the things she prints at home are school-related.
As Department Chair, Batchelor also manages the English Department’s finances. With high demand for staplers, Post-it notes, dry-erase markers, electric sharpeners, and printer ink cartridges, among other classroom necessities, the English Department, one of the largest departments on campus with 12 teachers, often struggles to meet the demands of its staff on a budget of $1,200. Printer ink can cost up to $80 per cartridge, for example, and takes up 60 percent of the department’s budget, according to Batchelor.
A teacher’s personal money isn’t just spent on the office supplies, however. Many of the literature classics stacked on a bookshelf in English teacher Alex Koers’ classroom were purchased with his own money. This summer, Koers spent $250 on novels, author biographies, and test prep for his AP Literature and Composition. He estimates that he’s spent “well over a couple thousand dollars” on books over the course of his 18-year career.
In the Math Department, Jennifer Collier, Math Department Chair, personally spends $100 on back-to-school supplies alone, and an additional $500 throughout the year. “There’s never enough money,” Collier said, referring to the department budget. “It’ll be nice to have a set of graphing calculators for every classroom, but they’re $120 apiece.” (With a deparment of 12 teachers, students in pre-Calculus class and higher are required to purchase their own graphing calculators).
The math, English, and other departments of BOHS are not the only ones affected by a lack of funding.
“The funding issue is much broader than classroom supplies and instructional materials,” Dr. Brad Mason, superintendent, said. “A lack of proportional funding affects all areas of the Brea Olinda Unified School District. In an attempt to make our dollars stretch as far as they can, [the district is] very purposeful in [the] budgeting process. Part of our plan never accounts for teachers contributing their own money to purchase supplies for their room.”
Last year, BOHS received $20,399 for all academic classes’ materials, according to the budget report. In California, high schools receive $54.83 per student for instructional supplies while elementary and junior high schools receive $30.35 and $38.15, according to Dr. Brad Mason, Superintendent.
“The funding issue is much broader than classroom supplies and instructional materials,” Dr. Brad Mason, superintendent, said.
However, BOHS teachers do not receive this money directly; the money is first forwarded to Pam Valenti, Assistant Principal, who then provides a budget to all departments according to their needs. Although teachers can get reimbursed for some of their expenses, a survey by the Wildcat found that 71.4 percent of BOHS teachers claim that they do not get reimbursed for their purchases “most” of the time.
“I don’t want to ask [the Department Chair] to buy something that I would only use once one month out of the school year. Our department does really well in buying class sets of calculators, but because I want everyone [in my class] to have a calculator, the DonorsChoose grant would help me achieve this,” Nicole Baughman, math teacher, said. (DonorsChoose is a nonprofit organization that allows anyone to donate directly to public school teachers. If a classroom or instructional supply requires a larger amount of money than usual, teachers can turn to DonorsChoose.org to apply for grants.)
Baughman, who spends $500 of her own money every year, believes that the out-of-pocket expenditures are necessary to enhance the classroom experience for students.
“I started off teaching at a low income school in Los Angeles Unified District to make learning as fun as possible for the kids there. I spent a lot of money because the school did not have a lot of money to spend. I think after teaching three years there, I kept that philosophy [in Brea]. I want to have marker pens available because I think colorful notes are helpful; I think putting posters up make an inviting classroom and make it a place I want to be six hours a day. These kind of things — it’s just my personality. I want to buy things to make it a learning environment. I think you can have a fun learning environment without spending a lot of money, but if I can do something to make myself good coming to school, and that carries over to enthusiasm working with students, [I will do it].”
Without a budget that can fully provide for every classroom’s needs, teachers will continue to spend their own money to keep their room’s functional and resourceful for their students.
