City Stops Funding Teachers' Classroom Supplies

The school year has started again, but classrooms may be lacking in essential supplies. With budget cuts hitting every possible part of city agencies (4,100 teachers jobs were threatened), the NY Times reports on how the "Teacher's Choice" program, which allowed teachers to get reimbursed for getting their classes ready, has been suspended for the foreseeable future.

At one time, Teacher's Choice reimbursed up to $220 in purchases, but it fell to $110 last year. Still, $110 was still something when many teachers tend to spend more out of their own pockets. A second-grade teacher in Brooklyn told the Times, "More than the dollar amount, I think it’s the concept. Because the concept says: ‘We understand that you’re putting out a lot, and we’re supporting you in that.'"

Some teachers say they'll keep buying, but might have to budget. A kindergarten teacher admitted, "A lot of things you would have bought, you’re going to leave off. Like helping the kids out with their supplies, because some of them come in without supplies — that’s going to have to stay off the list. I am going to buy some notebooks, but I’m not going to buy as many as I usually buy. I’m just going to hope that most of them bring it in, and these are for the kids who just can't."

In July, one educator said the end of Teacher's Choice should translate to all teachers dropping the habit of spending their own money on supplies: "No more money from our pockets while Bloomberg spends 900 million on "contractors" or pays millions of our tax dollars to Rupert Murdoch and Joel Klein in no bid contracts. Nuh uh. No way. I'll live without chalk and chart paper. But I can't live with the idea that the billionaires are feasting on our tax dollars while we have to go begging for rubber bands." Well, the state did drop the News Corp. contract—so maybe spend now?

And if you want to help needy classrooms, go to Donors Choose, where you can donate to classrooms. For instance, Ms. G's Bronx kindergarten class—in a high poverty area—could use paper, glue sticks, and more.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 10, 2011 1:55 PM

Comments [rss]

LICnative

If I was a teacher, I wouldn't go into my pocket for jack. School supplies should be provided by the school, parents should be responsible for providing their children with their own individual needs.

If you've got enough for a forty and a blunt, you've got enough for a few notebooks and pens.

Fern Cohen

I agree, but in a school of 400 students, we were lucky to get 20 parents on parent-teacher conference day and night. Yes, they should buy school supplies, but they're not. And as for "turning out idiots", half the population is not fed correctly at home and has chips and coke for breakfast, hasn't slept well the night before the school day, isn't properly cared-for in all the basic ways suburban kids take for granted. And, a good number of kids are doomed before they start school, because their moms smoked, took drugs, and boozed while they were pregnant. It's not the kid's fault -- he didn't ask to be born of a mom who didn't care aout pre-natal care.

whiteiris

March 2010:

Real spending per pupil ranges from a low of nearly $12,000 in the
Phoenix area schools to a high of nearly $27,000 in the New York metro
area. The gap between real and reported per-pupil spending ranges from a
low of 23 percent in the Chicago area to a high of 90 percent in the
Los Angeles metro region.

http://www.cato.org/pub_displa...

whiteiris

If you spend 1K out of your own pocket than your an idiot. Where does the f*cking money go. I'm tired of the whining "it's for the children.........only it's not since schools are turning out more idiots. It's for the greedy unions......

"As reported by the State Education Department, New York spent an
estimated $53.7 billion on public schools in 2008-09. That was an 81%
increase compared to a decade earlier. The portion of that funding
coming from state tax dollars jumped by 102% over the same period.Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/o...

The Great Arturo Bandini

UNIONS! PUBLIC EMPLOYEES! CRAYONS! YEARGH! UNIONS! GRUMBLE! DAMN REGULAR PEOPLE TRYING TO LIVE COMFORTABLE MIDDLE CLASS LIFE! BEG BEG FOR YOUR MEAL SLAVES! UNIONS ARE FOR LAZY, SPOILED NON-GROVELING TYPES! I HATE THOSE PEOPLE!

BarclayNY

I see no reason for a public response to any news story. The sheer stupidity and ignorance displayed is pretty sad.

Roger_the_Shrubber

Meanwhile, the school janitor makes a hundred grand a year to mop the floors.

LazyNanny

Assuming he even shows up for "work".

LazyNanny

Have any of you people seen their contract? I would love to laze around in a part time job for 20 years then collect at 6 figure income.

Fern Cohen

As a former teacher, I have to say that I left a corporate job to be a teacher and thought I would be working less.....hahaha.....I had to teach night school, summer school, Saturday school, and do private tutoring the rest of the time just to make ends meet. What is this "part-time job" you speak of? I spent any free time I had, doing lesson plans and preparing handouts, tests, and visual aids to be an effective teacher, not to mention correcting papers and grading exams. Part-time job? At least when I was in the corporate world, I worked in the evening taking clients out for dinner and drinks, and I could take trips on the company's wallet. We got $200 a year for "teachers choice"...what a joke....I spent at least $1,000 more out of my own pocket for supplies.

leeleeflea

I would love to "laze around in part time job fo 20 years then collect a 6 figure income" also! But I can't, because I'm a teacher.

And if you are ignorant enough to think that way, maybe you should switch careers and see how fast your tune changes.

leeleeflea

I would love to laze around in part time job fo 20 years then collect a 6 figure income" also! But I can't, because I'm a teacher.

And if you are ignorant enough to think that way, maybe you should switch careers, and see how fast your tune changes.

LazyNanny

Well we gotta pay for their greedy union benefits, right?

Pozzolana

Sure. The only way to compensate our public servants is by taking crayons away from kindergartners. Makes perfect sense.

Besides, if you think teachers are greedy, how do you feel about mortgage brokers?

LazyNanny

They aren't feeding from the public trough. Like those greedy, selfish teachers.

SeasTooFarToReach

If I were a "greedy, selfish teacher" I wouldn't be buying squat for any student, certainly not out of my own pocket.

Pozzolana

You do realize that teachers do work in exchange for their pay, right? Their salary isn't welfare. And what they get paid is far from largesse. If you don't like paying taxes to contribute to your community then you're the selfish one.

And if you think mortgage bankers aren't cheating and lying their way to exorbitant wealth at our expense you're out of touch with reality.

Stevennnn

Teachers are greedy? LOL! How about them wall street people? What do they contribute to society? Nothing!

Colonel_Ingus

This has been the norm in our school for years. I believe Staples and some other places give massive discounts to teachers... and those buying for teachers. Like 80% off kind of discounts.

Aprilyn Smith

Um, no they do not. I have a teacher card and 4 times a year I get a very small % back for the things I have bought and copies I have made. I spend about a thousand a year out of my own pocket IN ORDER TO DO MY JOB. How many jobs ask you to do that?