Every teacher has, at one time or another, gone to the store to buy something for their students. Maybe it’s treats for a job well done, or specific supplies for a project. In other cases it could be paper, pencils, notebooks, binders or other supplies that most people would think should be provided by the school. Regardless of what teachers are buying, we should be asking a few serious questions. Why are teachers spending their own money in the first place? And just how much money are they spending? The answers to both of those questions are fairly shocking.

So, just how much are teachers spending?

Let’s start with how much teachers are spending on their students every year. A survey conducted in 2013 by the National School Supply and Equipment Foundation determined that 99.5% of teachers reported spending their own money on school supplies for their students. According to the survey’s calculations, teachers spent $3.2-billion total, but only got reimbursed for half of it, leaving $1.6-billion coming out of their own pockets, a staggering number considering how comparatively low a teacher’s salary is. What’s even crazier is that the number may be way too low.

In 2018, the Department of Education released a survey showing that teachers, on average, spend $478 per year on supplies without reimbursement. According to the most recent statistics, there were an estimated 3.7 million teachers in America at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Assuming those numbers are accurate, that gives us a total of nearly $1.8-billion spent by teachers on students.

Of course, those dollar figures all come from a pre-COVID world. Today, many teachers report spending much more now than they used to. Sure the government promised to provide every school with all the PPE and sanitizer they could handle, but that has proven to be an empty promise in many cases. One survey from Adopt A Classroom says that teachers are now spending closer to $745 a year on supplies, with disinfectant wipes, masks, paper towels and sanitizer being added to the usual list of supplies teachers run out of these days. If that number is closer to what teachers are spending today, that would mean teachers shelled out $2.7-billion on supplies this year alone.

What are teachers spending their money on?

When it comes to breaking down where all the money is going, about 40% of it goes to instructional materials, and teachers spend another 30% on school supplies. Obviously, schools should cover these, but today they are coming up increasingly short in providing for the growing number of students they see every year. That shortfall is even more prevalent in high-poverty schools, where out-of-pocket spending by teachers is significantly higher than the national average.

Chart displays the average teacher's spending on school supplies 2011-2012 and 2015-2016. For both years, the average teacher spent anywhere between $430 and $525 on school supplies for their students. The chart also indicates that, while the average cost per teacher in high income areas has stayed relatively the same over time, the average cost in general and specifically for those teaching in high poverty schools has significantly increased.
Source: Economic Policy Institute

The issue isn’t a uniquely American one, as teachers in most countries say they spend at least some money on their students. However, the number of teachers who say they have out-of-pocket expenses worldwide is far lower than US teachers. Close to 90% of Australian teachers say they spend their own money. In England, 20% say they buy school supplies for their students, but more than half say they’ve purchased food, clothes and hygiene products for their students.

How did this happen, and what can we do?

So why are teachers being asked to foot this bill each and every year? Paying for supplies for a lesson plan you created may be excusable, but paper and pencils? Masks? These are items that should always be there. Unfortunately, this is a problem that rolls downhill, and teachers are at the very bottom. Governments are not spending enough to account for the rise in student populations, and that puts a much larger strain on tight school budgets.

Teachers across America have also started fighting for and getting, higher wages. But while those higher salaries may put more money in the pockets of teachers, that doesn’t mean schools have more funds. Administrators are having to make cuts in other areas to make up the difference, and often those cuts affect what goes into the classroom. As a result, if a teacher gets extra money in their paycheck one week, they might end up spending it at Target the next.

The easy solution, as it always seems to be, is to simply throw more money at the problem and hope that solves everything. In reality though, it might take more than that to ease the burden on teachers. A larger move to technology-related teaching might help, and as the COVID vaccine continues its rollout, we’ll likely see less need for PPE and sanitizer in the classroom. For now, however, teachers will keep giving their time, effort, and a portion of their paychecks to their students.