Teachers Continue to Fund Your Child's Education

The Funding Factory, which specializes in helping schools raise money by recycling used printer cartridges and cell phones, recently polled it's participants to determine their level of satisfaction with the program and to seek options for future promotions. Participants were very pleased with the program (99%). However, a very interesting statistic caught my attention. The following is one of the questions from this survey:

If you are a teacher, how much money out of your own pocket do you spend for classroom materials each year?

• $450+ , 297 (17.74%)
• $350 to $450, 175 (10.45%)
• $250 to $350, 296 (17.68%)
• $150 to $250, 372 (22.22%)
• $50 to $150, 351 (20.96%)
• $0 to $50, 184 (10.99%)
• N/A I am not a teacher, 2,336

Source: http://www.fundingfactory.com/admin/participant/surveys/2006_Survey_Results.doc
Fall 2006 Survey Says was answered by 4010 participants between Oct. 2 and Oct. 27, 2006.

So of the 1674 teachers who responded to the question, 18% are spending more that $450 on their classrooms. In fact, 46% say they spend more than $250 of their own money to fund what they do in their classrooms. As a teacher, this is not news to me, yet I was surprised that the totals were as high as they are, according to the survey. While I feel fortunate to live in a state that allows teachers a $250 income tax deduction, clearly not even that amount is enough for 46% of the teachers in this state. Teachers know best what the needs of their students are. Why is it that they do not have enough? Why is it that they, who are paid so little for their service to the future of our society, must still pay for these needs out of their own pocket. For example, Title I funding in California is dwindling, causing me to spend $800 of my own money for professional development this school year. This is a tragedy and the situation must stop. How much more can teachers have to give before great teachers leave the profession forever?

What can we do? Pay more taxes for education? Buy more education bonds? I don't see how that translates into money for our students. The funds simply get swallowed up by the system, like a fine mesh filter. Very little ends up directly benefiting the students. If the bureaucracy of today's school systems would allow teachers and parents more input into how the money gets spent, our students would be much better off. I have been in staff meetings (not at my current school) where the Principal simply disseminated information to the teachers about decisions that had already been made, never allowing the teachers to voice their opinions or provide constructive suggestions. We expect our students to work collaboratively, but how often to we practice it? Not often enough, I say. Wouldn't the end result be of the maximum benefit to our students and YOUR children?