A recent survey has found that about ninety four percent of the teachers, teaching in public schools in US, spend their own money for buying school supplies and no reimbursement is made towards that. The survey was published by Department of Education after a protest from teachers asking for more pay and funding.
In the academic year 2014-15, teachers spent average $479 from their own money. The money was spent on purchasing supplies as chalk, pencils and construction paper. Seven percent of the teachers spent more than $1000 for supplies. The report was from department’s National Center of Education Statistics.
Spending was more a common phenomenon in high-poverty schools in contrast to wealthier schools. More than half of the US public students are eligible for the free lunch program, which is considered a benchmark for poverty.
The study was inspired by the walkouts by teachers in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma seeking better pay, benefits, and funding. This strike was the biggest teachers’ strike in US history, in reply to this Arizona’s governor signed a budget that will improve the pa y by 20 percent.
It is expected that thousands of teachers will go for a march in Rayleigh, North Carolina on Wednesday.The march will take place to seek more school funds from the bureaucrats.
According to a law made in 2002, teachers can deduct up to $250 from their US taxes for reimbursed spending on classroom materials. Anthony Brown, a Maryland Democrat, and 35 co-sponsors would double the deductible amount by a new legislation and index it to inflation.
The average earning of a US teacher was $56,383 per annum in the year 2012-13, which is a 1.3 percent drop from the turn of millennium, as the statistics from Education Department show.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said walkouts by teachers should not be required to address the lack of spending on public education.
There is no other job in which the workers have to subsidize what should be a cost borne by an employer as a necessity ingredient of the job.
The Education Department said the study was based on a nationally representative sample of public schools, teachers and principals in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
