Teachers Spend about $475 of Their Own Money on Materials
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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 10/09/2007
If you’ve had to dip into your own pocket to pay for library materials, you’re not alone. On average, K–12 teachers nationwide spend about $475 of their own money for classroom supplies.
Overall, educators report receiving about $370 from their school or district to spend on their own classroom, says the study “Teacher Buying Behavior” by Quality Education Data (QED), an education market research and database firm. That probably explains why a whopping 77 percent of teachers report spending up to $500 of their own paychecks to make up for the shortfall. Thirty-six percent spend between $251 and $500 and 12 percent say they’ve spent $1,000 or more.
Elementary school teachers spend a significantly higher amount ($539) of their own money, compared to middle school ($393) and high school ($427) teachers.
What did the teachers buy? The majority, 85 percent, purchased student reward items; 75 bought classroom decorations; and close to 60 percent got professional development materials. About 50 percent used their own money for classroom library books, 33 percent for reference materials, and 26 percent for classroom magazines.
The study was conducted by using a random sample of 4,177 K–12 teachers. Of those, 3,125 responded, and 957 qualified.
