Why Should a Teacher Have to Beg, Borrow, and Steal Basic Supplies?
Myrna Thurnher went to a teachers convention in New Orleans last month and shamelessly grabbed not a couple, but 50, of the red pens given as freebies. She walked around the room after one session to collect leftover notepads.
Her loot has found its way to Woodbridge Senior High School in Prince William County, where Thurnher is a special-education teacher.
Whether she is traveling to a conference or on vacation, she said, she never leaves a hotel without at least a pen for her students. Her
motto: "Anything free makes its way back to my classroom."
At a time when Virginia, Maryland and other states face massive budget deficits, craftiness is a much-needed quality among public school teachers, who say they find themselves having to spend more of their money to supply their classrooms. For some, these out-of-pocket
expense items include not only decorative posters, but also such essential items as pencils, glue bottles, scissors and facial tissues.
A recent nationwide survey, by the National School Supply and Equipment Association in Silver Spring, found that teachers spent an
average of $589 of their own money on supplies in 2001, up from $448 in 1999.
The federal government has begun to notice. Last year, President Bush signed into law a $250 federal tax credit for educators who spend
their own money on classroom materials. The credit was extended to this year. Now, the National Education Association, whose membership includes 2.7 million teachers -- and some lawmakers, including Sen.
John W. Warner (R-Va.) -- is lobbying for a permanent and much larger tax credit that would cover supplies and professional conferences.
"It's an important issue because this will make a real difference for many educators, who often sacrifice personal needs to pay for classroom supplies and professional training," Anjetta McQueen, an NEA spokeswoman, said.
School administrators are sympathetic, but say they are struggling to keep up with rising costs to equip their campuses with the latest
technology and instructional materials to help meet the federal No Child Left Behind law. At a local level, most decisions on how much to spend on classroom supplies are made on a school-by-school basis.
"We've had very limited revenue for the past two years," said Susan Bowen, manager of instructional budget and staffing for Anne Arundel County schools. "You have to decide with the money you get: Do you need buildings, do you need teachers, do you need pencils?"
In Prince George's County, $18.1 million in discretionary funds -- money that principals can use for classroom supplies and other
expenses such as textbooks, additional staffing and campus signage -- was available last year for the district's nearly 200 schools. This
school year, principals will have $14.3 million to work with, a district spokeswoman said.
Even in those school systems where funding cuts are not slicing into instructional supply budgets, teachers contend -- and some school
administrators concede -- that the budgets are not increasing at the rate they should.
"The vast bulk of our budget is devoted to salaries and benefits, but a very important and visible part of the budget is the instructional
supplies and textbooks . . . so we have tried really hard to support a substantial amount of funding," said Brian Porter, spokesman for
Montgomery County schools. "We all know it's not enough. If it's kept up with inflation, it's barely kept up."
Some schools reimburse teachers for their expenses or give them stipends. At Mill Run Elementary School in Loudoun County, for
example, Principal Paul L. Vickers said he gives teachers $150 to spend on supplies. Teachers in Prince George's used to receive a $150 stipend for out-of-pocket expenses, but in recent years that money has had to go toward salaries, said Carol Kilby, president of the
county teachers union.
For years, teachers have asked parents to contribute communal supplies, such as paper towels and antibacterial soap, to their children's classrooms. At some schools, however, parent-teacher groups have taken an even more active role in helping educators. The
Parent-Teacher Organization at Mill Run Elementary gives teachers $50 each to spend on supplies, and teachers can make proposals for
additional money, Vickers said.
The PTA at Horizon Elementary School, also in Loudoun County, gives each teacher a $150 stipend to pay for supplies, said Jill Stilwell, a volunteer with the group. On top of that, the PTA maintains its own supply cabinet at the school. If a teacher requests an item not in stock, a volunteer will go shopping for it -- usually within 48 hours.
"We want to support the teachers as best we can," Stilwell said. "We don't really want them spending out of their own pocket for these
things, nor do we want them to take the time to run out and buy them."
Yet PTA involvement too often highlights an economic divide among schools, said Howard Tutman III, president of the Council of PTAs in
Prince George's County, where several of the groups award grants to teachers to pay for supplemental materials.
"Obviously, some schools in wealthy communities have parents who can afford to do extra things," Tutman said. "It can be a challenge at
some other schools."
Some teachers said they also turn to local businesses for discounts. Bonnie Klakowicz, an art teacher at Leesylvania Elementary School in
Prince William County, persuaded a local grocery store to sell her Styrofoam meat trays for 50 cents for an art project.
Bernadette Sharp Melvin, a reading teacher at Carmody Hills Elementary School in Prince George's, has spent part of her summer
searching newspapers for ads for back-to-school sales. She also went to thrift stores and discount chains.
Recently, she pointed to all the items in her classroom that she paid for. There were the Care Bears bulletin board border, the magnetic
letters she uses to teach reading lessons and the rug that came from a thrift store.
"All summer long, you see what you like and you get it," said Melvin, 52, who has taught for 29 years.
New teachers tend to spend even more on classroom supplies -- about $700 a year -- while earning less money, according to Quality
Education Data, a Colorado-based research firm owned by Scholastic Inc.
Nathaniel Thomas, 22, knew he'd have a lot to worry about last year as a first-time teacher in Prince George's. But he didn't think one
of his biggest problems when he taught social studies at Drew-Freeman Middle School in Suitland would be paper. Whenever he ran out, he had to request more. Often, he was denied. He never quite figured out where the supplies were stored.
"I don't know where they kept it. It was top secret," he said.
He spent about $500 last year on such supplies as paper, charts, pens, pencils, file folders and bulletin board borders. For Thomas --
whose salary is $35,000 and whose monthly rent is $800 -- it was an added burden.
Thomas, who is now a teacher at the Forestville Military Academy, has become a more astute shopper. Once he found out that he was going to
teach U.S. government, he went to a party store and took advantage of a 70 percent discount on Fourth of July decorations.
Near the end of last school year, Bryan Turner, an art teacher at Charles H. Flowers High School in Prince George's, ran out of the
17-by-24-inch paper he needed for a project in which his students drew cityscapes and landscapes. "I was using Xerox paper, and that's pretty sad," he said.
So he came up with another project for his students: They used the smaller sheets of paper to create their own books.
When the school year ended, the head of the art department asked Turner to make a wish list of supplies. Near the top of his list was paper.
— Nancy Trejos
Cuts Force Teachers to Forage for Supplies
Washington Post
2003-08-25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A39981-2003Aug24¬Found=true
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
