The school year begins and suddenly you realize you need tons of extra supplies your school doesn’t already own. So you make the trip to your local Walmart or teacher store in hopes of finding some deals. While you are there, you find 25 different items in addition to the ones on your list you forgot to think about. Plus you add some extra school supplies to your cart for the students who will forget, can’t afford or loose within the first week of school. You walk out, head down as you just put almost $250 on your credit card. As you are walking to your car, you sink even lower as you think of the parties, motivational items, snacks and other miscellaneous items you will have to purchase throughout the year. But you raise your head back up as you remember, you are a teacher, it is part of the job, and it will make your student’s lives a little easier. Sound familiar? Should “are you willing to spend money out of your own pocket” be included on a teaching application? Or is it something that is common knowledge you gain as a college student?
How much DO teachers spend out of pocket? In a journal article posted by Questia several schools were studied to poll how much money teachers spend out of pocket. Minnesota schools were on the radar. K-12 teachers spent approximately $492 of their own money on their classrooms/students. Add it all up and Minnesota teachers spend almost 23 million dollars each year out of pocket.
In an article written by John Fitzgerald, posted on the Minnesota 2020 website, he states teachers in 2005 had a starting salary of $29,907 their first year of teaching. He also stated how new teachers are the ones who are spending the most out of pocket due to the fact veteran teachers have had years of purchases carrying over. One thing Fitzgerald found teachers spend their own money on, is filling gaps in state curriculum. One example given was a teacher who was short 2 books and went out and purchased them herself. As a teacher, I would do the same thing. But why? Why wouldn’t it be possible for the district or state to provide 2 more books? Is it too time consuming? Is it really going to put a huge crunch on the budget?
After adding up how much money I have spent in my classroom over my 3 years and complaining about it, I have to say I finally have all my family members trained what to keep their eyes open for at garage sales, auction sales, or even stuff people are giving away. I started looking for more numbers to see if Minnesota teachers were at the high or low end of out of pocket expenditures. I came across one website reporting on Los Angeles teachers and their out of pocket expenditures. I was astounded to find teachers are spending over $1,000 each year from their pocket. One kindergarten teacher spends between $3,000 and $5,000 each year on her classroom.
Do we have any help? According to current law, you can deduct up to $250 of education supplies on your taxes to help with some of the expense. You need to be considered an eligible educator and the supplies are ones that are not reimbursed from your school.
But if on average teachers are spending around $500 for their classroom and only getting to deduct $250, what happens with the rest of the money? Will we ever think we have enough to get what we need?
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It is absolutely ridiculous that we must spend so much of our money on classroom items school systems will not fund. I am lucky to receive $1000 a year for supplies and other materials. However, that money can't be used at Wal-Mart or the local school supply store. So there is where all of my pocket money goes. I believe that with all of my wife and mine expenditures on our classrooms and professional organizations, we have spent over $1500 this year alone. No one looks at those facts that we spend so much of our own money and then get paid so little to teach students and deal with so many other things. This past year I took well over the $250 limit in deductions for teaching expenses and I believe that the $250 only applies when you have spent less than 7% of your income on teaching expenses. There are also other ways to gain the deductions for taxes, but that is not for our blog! Thank you for posting on how much money we spend on our classrooms!
ReplyDeleteI do believe those who are first starting out realize that money from their pocket will be used for their classroom. All teachers spend their own money purchasing things to use in the classroom. It's a given. Not everyone likes this, but what can be done? A person can just take a stand and say, "I refuse to spend personal money this year." and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteMy first two years of teaching, everything was new and fun and exciting. I wanted everything to be special, organized, and creative. So what did I do...I went to ed stores, Target, and Walmart. And boy, did I have fun shopping. I had tons of "extra" activities and projects to implement within my curriculum. I had good intensions, but some of those activities and projects are just collection dust to this day. The most valuable education is through the educator. Things can be bought, but things don't teach our kids.
I have a serious problem with teachers having to spend money out of pocket for even a pizza party, let alone having to buy books for the classroom. I absolutely refuse to purchase anything out of pocket because I have learned that once you draw a line in the sand and administration knows you will not fork out the extra cash, they will make sure you have everything that you need. I cannot think of another job where so much money is spent out of pocket (without so much as a thank you from your bosses by the way). Starting teachers seem to be the victims here as the article stated and that is wrong because they make the least! I agree with Cory that the concept of spending money out of pocket on the company you work for is completely insane. We get a $500.00 stipend because teachers in our building finally got sick of having to buy posters, calculators, rulers, erasers, etc and went to the union. Spending out of pocket money on your job is a slipper slope and it is easy to end up like the teacher who is spending $3000.
ReplyDeletecheers,
ct
I have a feeling you'll find us all in agreement. I am asked to spend my consumables budget of $3,000 in June for the next school year. I know it sounds like alot compared to most classroom budgets but I serve almost 700 students and have to use that money to maintain the shop equipment. If I don't spend it all by September I chance the budget being frozen and losing it. Inevitably, I will fill in with my own money. I have reduced the amount of money I spend by recycling and scrounging. I have woodworking businesses that let me have their "scraps"- it's good enough for our projects. I have taken apart many toys to harvest gears and motors.
ReplyDeleteI occassionally feel bitter about the amount of time it takes to gather these supplies but never enough to stop. I too have noticed it gets easier not to spend your money as time goes by. I think whether the item will enhance the lesson or if we can do without it.
I am with you on all this spending. When I added up my first year expenses alone I spent over a 1,000 dollars. I never want my students to go without in my classroom. I am constantly buying pencils, snacks and other materials necessary to keep my classroom running. Walmart is my store of choice to get cleaning supplies and school supplies for my classroom. I spend at least 50 dollars a month on my classroom and still scratch my head when trying to figure out where all the supplies go. I have a very small budget for my classroom and usually it is spent on rockets, car blanks or some other supply. My principal expects rewards for the classroom but gives us no money. I knew going into teaching that I would spend some of my own money, but never to the extent I currently spend. Great topic choice.
ReplyDeleteI can easliy relate to your blog because I have spent large amounts of my personal money for items in my classroom. In my district we are allowed to requisition for things we want for our classroom the following year (has to be used for instruction). I have always gotten what I wanted but of course many times throughout the year I need something for a special project, student gifts, prize box, etc. Each year we are also given $50 for these extra supplies but I usually spend that before school even starts. I know some may say what I spend it not necessary (prize box or christmas gifts for example) but I feel to be the teacher I want to be I need those items. I do deduct the $250 on my taxes and that helps. Myself and my peers have asked our PTO to help us supply things for our classroom. In the past couple years they gave us first grade teachers money to purchase items for our classroom store. That has really helped. So if you have a good PTO with extra money it doesn't hurt the ask for their help.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that is hard when you buy your own items is the fact that your school insurance will not cover your personal items. We complete a classroom inventory every year but our personal items are not allowed to be on the list so if we ever loose our school to fire, tornado, or flood for exapmle my personal purchases are lost!
Like everyone else, I will buy items for my classroom. To help the teachers out at my elementary school, we had a wonderful PTA. Our PTA gives every teacher that joins PTA $150. I join every year at the cost of $15/year. With that $150, I could go to Walmart or K-mart and buy quite a bit on sale (snacks, pencils, paper etc). For the items that I buy myself, I have my paraprofessionals and friends who go garage saling on the lookout for certain items. A few years ago, I started to ask my family for items for my classroom for Christmas. This seems to help and I do turn in my recites for the items that I buy in for taxes. Every year I set a limit of how much I am willing to spend and I have stay within my limit. My husband does not understand why I have to buy things out of our pockets, he feels that our schools need to do a better job at purchasing items (so do I but that is besides the point). Until then, I will continue to buy the things that I need for my classroom.
ReplyDeleteI have a really simple rule that was passed on to me from 30 years teaching vet when it comes to spending your own money... DON'T. If the school is not going to provide every last thing needed to deliver the programs they need to than they need to finds the money. Just as with my teaching contract... I will not teach beyond the designated times. This is a sad situation but the district I went to as a kid is in bad shape. The elementary schools in the Peekskill School district have the parents donate something for the class every year like glue sticks, markers and other general supplies... in other words all things that should have been purchased with tax money. I give my talent, my time but not my money.
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