EDITORIAL: Why should teachers have to pay for their own supplies?
It’s back-to-school time, and that means it’s the season for news reports on how much teachers spend out of their own pockets on supplies for their classrooms.
Inevitably, these stories shed light on the level of dedication teachers have, even when many of them are not adequately paid, and how many schools are chronically underfunded. Why, in a country as wealthy as ours, should teachers have to deplete their own wallets to make sure students have necessities as basic as pencils and paper?
The website My eLearning World recently tabulated the amount individual teachers will spend on their classrooms in the 2022-23 school year and, on average, they will fork over $820 in the next nine months or so. The greatest expenditure will be for books and software, followed by supplies like pencils and paper, food and snacks, prizes and cleaning supplies. According to My eLearning World, which is geared toward educators, this is a $70 increase over last year. It is also far beyond the $300 that teachers are allowed to deduct on their federal tax returns for out-of-pocket expenses.
In total, teachers will spend $3 billion this year on school supplies for their students and their classrooms.
This is also happening as seasoned teachers are marching out of classrooms and searching for work in other professions, and the country is staring down the barrel of a teacher shortage. Between February 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, and May of this year, 300,000 public school teachers and other staff walked away from education, according to The Wall Street Journal, and many instructors who are still hanging on say they would like to leave. It’s not hard to imagine why. Along with the relatively low pay, many teachers are subject to abuse and harassment from belligerent students and parents. More recently, teachers have also been the subject to bullying and micromanagement by politicians and community members on the far right who accuse educators of wanting to instill “woke” ideology in their charges.
As an op-ed from The Conversation that appeared in the Observer-Reporter Monday pointed out, “The root cause of the problem is a longstanding overall lack of respect for teachers and their craft, which is reflected by decades of low pay, hyperscrutiny and poor working conditions.”
And a story that appeared in both the Observer-Reporter and Herald-Standard last weekend revealed how school districts in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties are having a hard time finding candidates to fill available slots. The Jefferson-Morgan School District in Greene County, to cite one example, advertised for weeks for a high school chemistry teacher, yet received no applications. Disturbingly, some states are lowering the barriers for entry to the profession, which hardly ensures quality instruction.
There are, of course, some obvious ways to keep teachers in the field, with better compensation, better working conditions being right atop the list.
Most important, perhaps, would be that thing Aretha Franklin sang about more than 50 years ago – R-E-S-P-E-C-T. If anyone deserves some, it’s our teachers.