As the summer winds down, students and teachers are getting ready to head back to classrooms throughout the country. But for America’s teachers, that comes at a price: an average of $459 to be exact.
 
Because of a shortfall in spending on school budgets, teachers are forced to reach into their own wallets to prepare for their students, further eroding their take home pay. According to an EPI report, teachers on average spent nearly $500 to get classrooms ready: $327 in North Dakota on the low end of the spectrum, and $664 in California on the high end. 
 
Teachers are plugging the gaps of insufficient school spending to help ensure students have materials they need for a positive learning environment. “An overwhelming majority of them—more than nine out of 10—will not be reimbursed for part of what they spend on supplies over the school year, according to survey data from the National Center for Education Statistics,” EPI found.
 
EPI’s report also shows teachers in high-poverty schools “are spending more of their own money on school supplies than are teachers in low-poverty schools. This gap may reflect greater needs among students in high-poverty schools and more deficient funding systems for those schools.”
 
Check out the graphic below to see how much, on average, teachers spend out-of-pocket in each state. Then click here to share it on Facebook. Our teachers should not have to spend their own money on our classrooms. We need to prioritize spending on education to help ensure our students and our teachers have the resources they need.

Educators are shelling out hundreds of dollars of their OWN money at a time when teacher salaries are hamstrung by decreased spending on education. Past research by EPI reveals that weekly wages of public school teachers decreased by $21 a week from 1996 to 2018, falling from $1,216 to $1,195 a week when adjusted for inflation.
 
We need to support those in charge of educating the next generation. But year after year, teachers’ incomes are falling behind what they would be making in the private sector. This income pay gap—known as the “teacher pay penalty”—is reaching a crisis.
 
It is not fair to rely on the generosity of teachers to fill in the gaps of the public education budget, by buying school supplies for their students, particularly when teacher pay has failed to keep pace with the private sector. This further cuts their net income and leaves the systematic issues they face unaddressed.
 
Take a moment to share the graphic above with your friends and family.
 
We need to make sure people throughout our country know how much teachers are spending of their own money to supplement the shortfall in education spending.
 
In solidarity,
 
John Schmitt
Vice President, Economic Policy Institute