As Prices Go Up and Student Needs Rise, Teachers Are Filling in the Gaps

By Sarah D. Sparks for Education Week

Teachers have long pulled from their own pockets to pay for classroom supplies. Now, rising inflation and widening student needs have made that more expensive.

“At this point, the school has pretty much said they can’t pay for anything, which has been pretty shocking,” said Dominique Foster, a 20-year veteran early childhood specialist at Friendship Public Charter School’s Blow Pierce campus in the District of Columbia. “[Administrators] just don’t know how much money there will be, so they’re trying to stretch it. If you want to do anything, they might say you can do it, but you better pay for it yourself.”

In a survey released by the crowdsourcing platform DonorsChoose April 28, teachers reported spending on average $655 of their own money for their students this school year, up $45 from the 2023-24 school year. They sought more than twice that in outside money to meet basic classroom needs.

DonorsChoose is the largest education crowdfunding platform in the United States, with teachers in about 9 in 10 school districts nationwide requesting aid through the site. In March, the group surveyed more than 2,500 K-12 teachers nationwide who use the site about their experiences and priorities in the 2024-25 school year. The group also analyzed data from the crowdfunding requests of more than 7,000 teachers who work in schools with a majority of students from low-income families and a majority of students who are Black, Latino, Native American, Pacific Islander, or multiracial.

Read more here.

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