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Budgets Cut, Teachers Dig Deeper for Supplies
ROCKLAND - When English teacher Stacey DeCotis first saw her new fifth-grade Hanover classroom, it had some desks and not much else. So she went shopping for a small library of books and a host of decorations to liven things up.
Public school teachers paying for classroom supplies is not new. But today’s stumbling economy has deepened the need, as budget-crunched schools look to trim costs and more students show up without even basic supplies. * Tweet 10 people Tweeted this
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Then, with the first day of school just around the corner, DeCotis paid a visit to Teachers Rule, an educational supply store in Rockland, where she stocked up on supplies and personalized items for the students’ first day.
In all, DeCotis spent several hundred dollars - all from her own pocket - to get ready for the first day of classes.
“Some people think I’m crazy to spend so much,’’ she said as she perused the aisles one morning. “But I’m not alone.’’
Public school teachers paying for classroom supplies is not new. But today’s stumbling economy has deepened the need, as budget-crunched schools look to trim costs and more students show up without even basic supplies.
Statewide, public schools spent $66.6 million on general supplies in fiscal year 2010, down from $68.3 million in 2006.
Teachers describe their out-of-pocket expense as an occupational hazard. How much they spend, and how readily, varies considerably. But with schools and families under financial strain, most feel obligated to chip in.
At the Rockland store, another dozen or so public school teachers were checking off lists of workbooks, pocket charts, and laminated desk plates. All said they were assuming the cost themselves.
Carla Manning, who runs the store with her two sisters, said teachers have been showing up in droves for workbooks, bulletin boards, and other basic supplies. “They are paying for everything these days,’’ she said. “They buy all sorts of things that should be in the school budget, but aren’t.’’
At the same time, students are showing up at school with less, and teachers don’t want their economic circumstances to hold back their learning.
“A lot of students these days can’t afford to bring a notebook,’’ said Laura Mulcahy, a fourth-grade teacher in Quincy. “I want everyone to have what they need.’’ Mulcahy estimated she spends several hundred dollars on supplies and furniture, including rugs and bookcases, beyond her $200 yearly classroom account.
At many schools, students are asked to bring an ever-expanding list of supplies to class. In Melrose, for instance, parents of fifth-graders must buy pencils (#2 Adirondacks, if possible), colored pencils, crayons, markers, highlighters, glue sticks, and Post-it Notes and tabs.
At many elementary and middle schools, particularly in wealthier towns, students are asked to bring paper towels, tissues, and sanitary wipes for classrooms, as well as tennis balls for the feet of chairs to protect floors and stop squeaking.
As teachers and parents take on a rising share of classroom costs, some worry the practice is weakening the concept of publicly funded schools.
“It’s very worrisome,’’ said Paul Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “These are things that used to be included as part of going to public schools.’’
More parents nowadays must pay fees for their children to play sports, join clubs, and ride the bus, Toner noted. And in some towns parents have taken it on themselves to raise considerable sums for local schools.
School administrators said teachers often focus on secondary items such as posters and calendars. Yet they acknowledged that budget cuts have taken a toll on discretionary spending.
“Like any district, we’ve had to cut back,’’ said Kristine Nash, superintendent in Hanover. “But we make sure teachers have what they need.’’
Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said teachers who buy supplies are predominately in younger grades and are generally buying extras to make classrooms more welcoming and personalized.
“It’s about kids feeling comfortable,’’ he said. “A lot of it goes beyond the basics.’’
Yet Pat Kelley, co-owner of The Book Vendor, which sells educational supply and used books in Dracut, said the cost of basic supplies has incrementally been shifted onto teachers in many districts.
“When a parent walks into a classroom, almost everything they see was probably bought by the teacher,’’ Kelley said.
Mike Flynn, a second-grade teacher in Southampton and school board member in Northampton, has experienced both sides of the issue.
As a teacher, Flynn has seen his budget for supplies decline from $1,000 to $300 over the past decade-plus. As a school board member, he has seen how budget difficulties have led to such cuts, which in some cases can help save teaching positions.
Most teachers pay the extra cost with little hesitation, and say they do not expect the situation to change anytime soon.
“It’s understood that with budget cuts, teachers have to do more on their own,’’ said Stephanie Powers, 25, a first-grade teacher in Whitman. “If I didn’t, the classroom wouldn’t look good, and it wouldn’t be organized.’’
Even before she began teaching, Powers saved up to furnish her first classroom, buying more than 100 books and the bookcases to put them on. With school approaching, she picked up personalized desk plates for each student, so they would feel at home on the first day.
“To me, it’s worth it,’’ she said.
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17 Comments so far
Show All“To me, it’s worth it,’’ she said.
Scott Walker feels the same way.
I was really upset by a caller to C-Span this morning (a right-winger knocking Unions, of course) who said teachers didn't do anything for the students, all they cared about was raking in all that money. When I was employed at a school district in CA in the '80s, I worked with several teachers who bought supplies for students and all those extras to make learning enjoyable. Of course there are the crappy teachers. I had two of them when I was in school, only they weren't just crappy, they were sadistic. I met a few of the crappy ones when my kids were in school. But the majority of the teachers I've known worked many hours overtime (not getting paid for it) to benefit their students.
I work at the high school level in ny and I have already spent several hundred on supplies. This year our union announced that teachers choice which provided $120 will be eliminated however, it is always worth it regardless of these sociopaths that chose to run our government. Interesting enough through these difficult economic times I have heard nothing of cuts to politicians salaries, perks, budgets etc.
Great! An approved list! Who's going to make it?
Most of my students have never heard of George Orwell. Who took him off the list of required reading?
Schools do need to be administered. Do you have any particular office that you find unnecessary?
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Why not get the money from the military, which is, for the most part, worse than useless?
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In K-12, the texts that kids see now comes from an approved list--approved at state level, generally, with some amendments at the district level. These are the people who never told us that King Ferdinand, leader of the Spanish Inquisition, recalled Columbus for killing too many Indians in Santo Domingo.
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Why not allow instructors to choose the books, since states and districts generally refuse to allow accurate materials? What is the point in making instructors administrate the purchase of materials and then not allowing them to select the materials they use in class? If one judges instructors incapable of selecting textbooks, by what criterion does one judge them capable of teaching corresponding classes?
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K-12 teachers stand in front of classrooms some 30 hours/week. That probably does not sound like much to corporate wage slaves, but it is considerable. Any morning coffee, staring out the window or hanging by the cooler time is on the teachers' own time, of course. But so are meetings, and so will be whatever work is necessary to cover for the support staff you suggest laying off. And one arrives before the children in the morning and stays after the children leave in the afternoon. And of course one needs time to interface with childrens' parents and guardians, since their cooperation is probably the largest single factor in any child's education. And there is the little matter of preparing and grading lessons, including reviewing candidate course materials. Figure 5 or so subject areas per day times 30 kids = more or less fifty pieces of input that will at least call for a frown or a smiley face--and let's try to be accurate: it really is not little Johnny or Jill's fault if Teacher's head is going throb-throb-throb or a significant other has left this particular afternoon.
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I teach university classes, not K-12, but I wonder how people do it and deal with all the flak they get. Particularly, I find that while I was once capable of slogging forth another hour and another hour moving furniture well into the night, I cannot do the same with student's papers. Of course I drift through in a haze, note a few semicolons out of place, and slap a grade on an essay. But that is not the point, is it? If I am forced to do that or foolish enough to put myself in such circumstances, I miss the opportunity to find an intervention that will matter to some student, and that student's problem, most generally, passes through to the next essay.
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As an odd and alternately arrogant and hypersensitive young student, a bit of a canary in the primary and secondary coal mines, I found myself frustrated no end by lousy or sometimes just insufficiently clever and inventive teachers. But I can recall nothing that suggests or suggested to me that they were insufficiently belabored by their tasks or insufficiently cowed by district and state authority.
I greatly admire the teachers who pay for these things. They shouldn't be doing it. I admit (many) don't get paid enough for the job they do for what they have to put up with.
But, (most) also support this ever-growing parasitic, violent government in Washington. They teach empire and predatory capitalism. From the start all the way through college. Especially college. Lets not forget providing fertile ground and young bodies for the Sports Cartel to munch on.
But I do feel for them. I honestly do. They were taught the same lies we all were.
There is a very expensive new fire station down the road. Lots of extras that have nothing to do with firefighting, but everything to do with esthetics. Out on the shoulder is a vinyl banner (one end dragging the ground) that asks for donations for school supplies. Add to that the trillions spent on 'defense' and Forever War and useless pork projects. That pretty much sums it up for me –and why I don't "give". Supporting them supports their 'empire', their own stupidity and drive to educate yet another generation of economic predators or hired murderers.
Just my opinion.
Gotta watch out about that "approved texts" list. No matter what a teacher buys, begs, borrows, or steals for the classroom, if the radar picks up that you're doing Orwell or Thoreau or . . ., you've been had.
This article is just more proof that Teachers Are Heroes.
I just wish we lived in a society that gave them the salaries and status they deserve. We entrust them with our most precious resource, our children, and then pay them peanuts and expect them to do more with less resources every year.
If you can't do anything else, put in some volunteer time at a local school. They'll appreciate it and you can get a first hand view of the kind of investment we're making in the future.
Yes indeed we are just experiencing the teavangelical storm front, bust the unions, teachers cannot even dicuss hours, wages and class size, or their health care because that is considered collective bargaining, the Koch brothers do want our children to be ignorant, no minimum wage, owe your sole to the company store, etc. Public money for wealthy charter schools? Of corse the wealthy will get the money, the working class can pay the bills for their supplies! The teabaggers can't understand how they are being taken advantage of, I don't really want to vote for Obama but I'll be damned if I'll vote for the republicans.
I had to chew a Tums after reading this article. Teachers as inventory suppliers?!! I have to chew Tums after every TV pitch for donations of pencils, pens, paper, binders, glue, art supplies, ad nauseum .... so our children can have the supplies they need to get an education.
Teachers, parents, administrators, taxpayers...it's time to let the facade crumble in broad daylight!
A pack of paper, a supply of pencils or pens, and digital camera, and a phone call to the local media and local access TV and radio.
Take pictures of the bleak classrooms, take pictures of the kids. Have the kids, parents, teachers write descriptive letters and send them to newspapers, magazines, and yea, even the deaf government. Ask them how to meet legislated standards in the current environment, unembellished by teacher generosity.
Does anybody get how sick this is? How come Cheney didn't have to buy waterboards out of his own pocket?...all the while teachers and parents and donors buy paper for PUBLIC education.
Insane.
I'm been married to a teacher for over 3 decades. She gets just a little rest over the summer, some of the break from late June to late August (which she is NOT paid for that but can choose to have checks spread evenly over the year), but work is always there, some meetings, new materials to review, class assignments, student assignments, room changes, preparations on and on and on. By the end of August it is far more than full time, including many evenings and weekends. Now our teachers will knock themselves out again, easily doing 60 hour weeks for all of September, and any time required. The 'lazy teacher' right wing idiot crap meme is often quoted as a very of sick joke.
Teachers bust their butts so that we may have some sort of civilization. But the astroturf Tea "Party" gives *not one shit* about civilization. Beyond the chuckling corporate masters, the rank and file teaheads probably barely graduated from high school, and in the process missed the civilization part of the curriculum. Of course now Civics class is a quaint memory.
The famous quote is appropriate:
"Think Education is expensive? Try Ignorance."
We are living it.
Well-said, chlorocardium, well-said. >>>> I hate to be picky, but who ever got $1000 per year for supplies? In 36 years as a public school elementary teacher, the MOST I got was $50.00, and that wasn't a check, but items I could choose from a centralized list. When that was trimmed years ago to $25.00, we teachers started supplementing out of our own pockets. I bought spiral notebooks, pencils, folders, erasers, scissors, rulers, etc. And that doesn't count the apparatus I built and brought in for science experiments, the videos for American History, and all the rest. >>>>
One thing I refused to do was to come in two weeks early and work to get ready for the school year without pay. Most others did. Then the Administration scheduled "Open House" for the first day of teacher workshop (the week before school started.) My choice then was either come in early and appear "ready" like everyone else, or appear "lazy and unprepared." I caved in, though I only came in several days early to prepare my room. Still, it rankled me since our contract was for "X days worked" with no provision for paid holidays nor vacation.
You tell the truth.
Recently, I read that Indiana has now made the teaching of cursive writing is optional. Undoubtedly, another idea of Dictator Daniels. Maybe that seems ok to most people, I don't know. For some reason, I find it disturbing, and an example of attempts to 'dumb down' children in public schools. I went to high school in Indiana and graduated in the mid/late 1990's. So little time has passed since, but it feels like a lifetime ago. The destruction of, what I think, are the basics of a functioning country are astounding. By the way, when I was in high school, We read Animal Farm, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, and excerpts of Thoreau. I don't recall ANY problems then. I should add that my school was in a rural area and, my graduating class numbered, at most,100 people. Just wanted to point out that it wasn't some hip, metropolitan school.
IB
Teachers can be abused because they are mostly women and do the work out of love and commitment (most of them). These attacks from the right on teachers are part of a fascist mentality, a program of dismantling everything except private greed and are bolstered by
A lack of respect and understanding for what a teacher's job entails
A general contempt for fact based information and for culture
Disdain for the lower classes, meaning anyone who cannot spend $20K and up each year per child for private school
Desire to degrade public education and turn it into a private enterprise - money to be made there. Modern version of poverty pimps.
An unwillingness to part with a dime for children (or the sick, the elderly, etc)
(I would like to see the bankers, brokers and rating agency executives dip into their own money to repay the people hurt by their fraudulent practices, which is almost everyone in some way within the USA and even in other countries)
Have you seen this poster?
Perfect World if Schools had Enough Money and the Military Had to Hold Bake Sales ...
It's from the sixties, but still applies.