Teachers spent up to $2,000 on students and their classrooms

Many teachers like Driver spend their money on their classrooms. A survey of 2,000 elementary school teachers by the Carnation Breakfast Essentials brand by Talker Research in June found that 1 in 5 teachers said they spend more than $300 out of pocket on classroom supplies.

“I don’t like doing it out of my own pocket because I also have kids that I have to buy school supplies for and do things for,” said Driver, who works at Trinity Christian Academy in Oklahoma. “But at the same time, I want my kids in my classroom to be able to have a fun learning experience, and I want them to love school.”

Rebecca Johnson, a seventh-grade teacher in Ohio, also bought decorations and supplies for her students. She spent hundreds of dollars this summer for her classroom at Columbus Horizon Science Academy Middle School, including on “Peanuts” posters, clipboards and storage containers for headphones.

“I think the school gives us everything we need to teach successfully, and they give us some of what we want,” Johnson said, adding that she and her fellow teachers each received $100 for supplies, as well as other financial support when needed.

But she wanted to go above and beyond her students. She said it was her choice to add extra decorations.

Classroom expenses amid higher prices

While teachers can deduct qualified expenses on their taxes, spending hundreds of their own money on classrooms could hurt their wallets.

“They, like all of us, live in a world where the cost of food and all that, household items and gasoline and all that stuff is more expensive,” Steve Majors, executive vice president and director of external affairs for Teach For America, told Business Insider.

Because Driver works at a private school, classroom funding may be limited because it comes from student tuition.

“I think my school is doing the best they can with what they have to help us with classroom supplies,” Driver said. “It would be nice if they could do more, but that always depends on the number of students we have enrolled.”

It’s not just private and charter school educators who spend their money. Survey data from previous years show that teachers in “traditional” public schools have to spend out of pocket.

Yelena Khazan, a first-grade teacher at a Florida public school serving low-income families, is excited about what’s to come in her first year as a full-time teacher.

She set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help buy items for the classroom. $845 of her $2,000 goal had been raised. Khazan said he spent some of his own savings on top of the fundraising money. Documentation shared with Business Insider showed she spent well over $2,000 on supplies and decorations on Amazon and through other sites. He also bought items from local shops.

Khazan said that in addition to students bringing in items on their school supply lists, some parents have offered even more support.

She spent money on classroom items because she wanted to give her students what they would need to be successful and because she wanted to create a comfortable environment considering how long she and her students would be in class.

“I want them to feel like they can express themselves, feel emotionally safe, and I want it to be a welcoming environment,” Khazan said.

Majors said schools in lower-income communities “are often under-resourced” and “their families may not have the means for all the tools they may need in the classroom.”

Majors said people who want to support teachers, even if they don’t have school-age children, could see if their school district has a donation fund or if they could drop off school supplies.

What the three teachers bought for their classroom purposes and needs

The driver said that no one wants to enter a boring classroom and she bought most of the items in her room. She spent over $800 on Amazon is only shopping this summer for his classroom and school sports he coaches for.

“I usually have to buy things that sometimes the kids just don’t have,” Driver said.

She said the school helps with supplies for archery, one of the sports she coaches, but has bought a few items for soccer and basketball. For example, he bought basketball glasses, a basketball hoop, and football straps.

Some items Driver bought this summer include paint brushes, dot markers, a rug and musical instruments. She said she also bought a poster that her students can press to learn about alphabet sounds.

“I try to keep them away from the iPads, but I still want them to be able to learn because they’re all so used to that instant gratification that I was looking for something else to give them that besides an iPad or a tablet” , Driver said.

Khazan bought books, magnetic boards, storage and organization items, and worksheets, among others. Flexible seating elements were also a priority.

At the time of the interview, Khazan expected arts and crafts, STEM materials, and printing fees to be the main expenses for the classroom.

Johnson believes that students will be interested in learning and more likely to care about her items the more “aesthetically pleasing” the classroom is. It has hanging posters, lamps and different chairs that students can use in addition to the standard classroom chairs.

“I treat that classroom as an extension of me and I want it to be aesthetically pleasing,” Johnson said. “I want it to be cute and fun and dynamic.”

Johnson said she usually buys things for the classroom throughout the summer. However, her summer spending this year was different than in the past.

“This year, I applied for one of the principal assistant jobs, so I kind of held back, I didn’t buy anything and I didn’t prepare anything because if I got that job, then I wasn’t going. to decorate a classroom, so I didn’t want to waste any money,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she didn’t have to buy some things in her room, like the desks, a bookshelf and her cart of Chromebooks. “Their financial support must go to such things; it has to go for electronics, internet, the basics of what I have to teach,” Johnson said of the school.

In addition to the panel provided, Johnson said he creates three more panels “by stapling the paper and the border to the wall. So it looks really colorful and welcoming.”

“A lot of the teachers will walk by me and say, ‘Ms. Johnson, if I could be a student in your classroom, I don’t think I’d ever leave,'” she said. “I like this feeling.”

If you are an educator, email this reporter at [email protected] to share how much you spent out of pocket on your classroom.