Resource Challenged: The Classroom’s Bare Supply Closet – Part I

Back-to-school supply shopping is essential in order to send children to school prepared and set up for success. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Studies show that many students are coming to school unprepared and that teachers are paying out of their own pockets to help bridge the gap.

According to TIME, teachers spend an average of $500 per year on school supplies out of their own pockets. This is a lot of money, and a huge problem.

Teachers should not be spending large amounts of their own money for the classroom, nor should children be going to school without the proper supplies. There’s a clear need for students and teachers to both be better set up for success.

As a longtime partner to educators, Apperson has seen this firsthand. In fact, we recently reached out to our own audience of teachers to hear what they had to say on the subject. The results were conclusive: there is a severe lack in student preparedness for school. In fact, 42% of our teachers said they feel that students do not come at all prepared with the necessary school supplies.

How about the ability of getting the necessary supplies through the school? 58% of our respondents said it is difficult to get the resources they need for the classroom, while a mere 6% said they felt it was easy.

Because of this, teachers are using their own money to try and supply their classrooms with the essential resources. The National School Supply and Equipment Association compiled a survey in 2015 and found that 99.5% of all public school teachers dip into their own pockets to equip their classrooms.

We asked our teachers how much of their own money they estimate they spend a year, and 35% said they spend between $300 and $500, while 23% said they spend over $700.

These are outstanding numbers, and something needs to change. Teachers, we would love to hear more from you about this problem so we can work to come up with a solution. Share your personal experience with purchasing school supplies for your classroom by replying in the comments section below! Be sure to keep an eye out for our next blog in the Resourced Challenged series that will talk about how these results impede the performance of students in the classroom, and some suggestions on how to overcome these challenges.