Teachers are most likely to report a shortage of “people resources,” with two-thirds saying they don’t have enough teaching assistants, aides or paraprofessionals. 

This “has a huge impact in the classroom in what teachers are able to do,” said Andrea Malek Ash, a senior research consultant at Gallup who led the survey.

Ash stressed that even as teachers struggle to access fundamental resources, they still expressed a desire to improve their practices through professional growth opportunities.

“So it’s like this hierarchy of needs,” she said. “Teachers really have to come at it right now from both ways: They’re trying to improve themselves, and they’re still dealing with not having enough furniture. That’s something that really stood out to me.”

A dearth in resources has long plagued educators, with as many as having to reach into their own pockets to buy materials for their students and many relying on to solicit help from private donors. According to the amount teachers spent climbed during the pandemic, according to , though schools were also able to spend emergency COVID funding on supplies and furniture. And this year, a typical assortment of back-to-school supplies will cost an average of , at least partially due to the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

School staffing, too, has remained a persistent challenge for public schools: as of June 2025, an estimated positions were either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments. Yet, the number of educators nationally saw a steady increase between potentially due to the emergency relief funding. With that money sunsetting just over a year ago, it’s not yet clear what impact that might have on combatting ongoing shortages.

Teachers reported that professional growth opportunities and materials are two of the most important factors when it comes to job satisfaction: 77% of teachers who have adequate resources report being satisfied at work, versus 44% of those who do not.

Gallup surveyed thousands of teachers from the RAND American Teacher Panel over the course of one school year: 1,989 teachers were surveyed between October and November 2024; 2,046 in January 2025; and 2,167 between April and May 2025. 

The report is part of a led by Gallup and the to study Gen Z and youth perspectives, especially as they relate to education. Since teachers play such a large role in a student’s engagement and success in the classroom, researchers said it was important to learn about their needs as well and will gather their views over the next few years.

Across the country, teachers overwhelmingly reported a shortage of school-based staff: almost two-thirds said their school didn’t have enough teaching assistants, aides, paraprofessionals or behavior intervention specialists and 62% said they didn’t have enough mental health resources or special educators.

Jessica Saum is a special education coordinator, former special education teacher and the In her current role, she works to ensure students’ receive the special education services they need and supports educators in various K-12 settings. Saum said she sees these shortages reflected in classrooms across her district — especially among paraprofessionals.

“The paras are typically doing some of the hardest parts of those jobs with the least amount of education and training,” she said, leading some to decide not to go into teaching or leave their jobs altogether. 

A shortage of paraprofessionals makes the general education teacher’s job “much harder,” Saum said. “As a special educator, I depended on my para educators to complete that classroom support. I needed them to be able to help me meet the needs of all the students.”

While 72% of teachers either agreed or strongly agreed that they had the equipment needed to teach effectively, 24% said they didn’t have enough classroom furniture, 25% didn’t have enough laptops or classroom computers and 35% didn’t have adequate printing supplies. Funding is likely one barrier to access, said Ash, but bureaucracy appears to be another: 1 in 3 teachers said the process they need to go through to order materials is “very” or “somewhat difficult.”

Even if school leaders don’t immediately have the budget to buy requested materials, Ash said, just being aware of teachers’ needs and making the acquisition process easier creates a better experience for educators.

Some of these trends held true across schools, regardless of family income. For example, teachers who work in wealthier schools — where less than a quarter of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch — were just about as likely (23%) to report not having enough classroom furniture as those who work in a school where up to 100% of students qualify (25%).

And teachers in these wealthier schools were actually more likely (68% vs. 64%) to report a shortage of teaching assistants or paraprofessionals, according to additional data from the study provided to ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ by Gallup.

Yet, when it came to technology, that flipped. Teachers in low-income schools were significantly more likely to report not having enough laptops (34% vs. 18%) or printing resources (43% vs. 28%).

The survey also found that about half of teachers say their professional development is not grounded in students’ needs or learning. They cite collaborative planning as the most valuable kind of development and 43% report observing other teachers as the most worthwhile activity — though just 1 in 3 teachers say they get that opportunity.

“So the most beneficial ones were the ones that we’re also missing,” said Ash.

The Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ.

was originally reported by Chabeli Carrazana of . .

Ah, a new school year. Crisp backpacks, gleaming sneakers, pressed uniforms and, of course, the collective rage of parents and teachers over school supply lists. How long they are. What’s on them. And who should foot the bill for pencils and paper, but also Clorox wipes and Kleenex. 

This year, though, those conversations, which typically clog up social media feeds as summer rolls to a close, have a new dimension. At a time when prices are creeping back up and public education is witnessing some of the steepest funding cuts in American history, the school supplies debate is a window into how families and workers are faring. 

“It’s not our job to supply all other students’ school supplies,” one mom on TikTok. “We pay taxes for that. The school should be funded to supply pencils and erasers and construction paper.” The video was then stitched together by another creator who added flashing headlines over the mom’s words: “Trump signs executive order to begin dismantling Education Department, raising questions for students and parents.” 

“I don’t have money to help Sally, John, Lucy,” . “Baby, my money, what I spend on for my kids is just for my kids. We don’t have the money to be trying to help other households
I feel like people who are in a position to help, I’m pretty sure they don’t mind helping, but it’s a lot of us that can only do for our kids.”

Teachers have spent the past couple of weeks countering. A middle school teacher in Memphis has for her response to frustrated parents: “Just so we’re clear, I’m expected to take a bullet for little Johnny and his classmates, but little Johnny’s mother does not see it fit to provide for the community with some Clorox wipes, some tissues, maybe an extra pack of pencils — that’s what we’re going with right now? I have to make the ultimate sacrifice for the community — the school — but little Johnny’s mother does not think that she has to make any sacrifices for the community.” 

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the debate is “exhibit A of the defunding of public schools and as a result the creation of a divisiveness that shouldn’t be there.” 

Of course parents are upset, she said. “They pay taxes, they’re like, ‘Why doesn’t the funding cover it?’” Meanwhile for teachers, the pressure is on them to fill in the gaps. “What other employee is told to basically fund their own job?” Weingarten said.

President Donald Trump has made it a priority to dismantle the Department of Education, a move Republicans as far back as Ronald Reagan have been calling for as part of an effort to remove the federal government from education, leaving curriculum and funding decisions to states and local school districts. 

Already, the Education Department’s role isn’t to dictate what is taught in schools but to dole out financial aid to college students, conduct research on education, enforce anti-discrimination laws and fund Title I K-12 schools in communities with the most need. Cutting the department will have direct consequences on discretionary funding at those Title I schools. How much schools spend on school supplies varies by district, but some . 

Since the start of the year, the Trump administration has at the Education Department. Then in June, it announced it would for the upcoming school year, money that had already been allocated by Congress to go out July 1 for summer and after-school programs, as well as reading and math support and other assistance for migrant students. Then, at the end of July, following significant pressure from numerous groups, the administration reversed its decision and released the funds. 

The political ping-pong forced school districts to take money from their discretionary spending budgets to ensure summer school stayed open. That meant dipping into funding for supplies, Weingarten said. 

Meanwhile, teachers, particularly at Title I schools, are going into the year with less support, facing potentially larger class sizes, limited counseling support for students and other challenges. About of teachers already use their own money to cover school supplies and other classroom needs — and those expenses are only going up. 

“Think about those educators who are taking money out of their own pockets, trying to stretch their own family’s budget, and at the same time how they’re feeling about the reality that their students are coming back to school and the schools have fewer resources,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union. 

It’s an “affordability crisis,” Weingarten added — and that’s what’s playing out on social media. 

Inflation has started to pick back up and Trump’s tariffs of 10 percent or more on nearly all countries went into effect on August 1, raising the cost of everyday goods, particularly electronics and clothing. In July, a key measure that looks at inflation without volatile food and energy costs , indicating companies are starting to pass tariff increases on to consumers. have indicated they will start to raise prices, and economists are warning that larger increases are on the horizon. 

All of it is affecting how parents approach back-to-school shopping this year. 

Data from found that families planned to shrink their back-to-school budgets to an average of about $858 from $874 last year. About half of shoppers were starting their shopping earlier this year, specifically to avoid markups from tariffs. During Amazon’s Prime Day event July 8 to 11, sales of school supplies (backpacks, lunchboxes, binders, calculators and kids’ apparel) were up over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. One U.S. News survey from late July found of parents are concerned about rising back-to-school prices due to tariffs. 

“A lot of these more or less low-cost, mass-produced items are just simply not made in the U.S. so there are necessarily going to be price hikes on things like pencils and crayons and backpacks and things we just don’t make here anymore,” said Alex Jacquez, the chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning think tank. “We are not going to move pencil factories back to the United States.”

The debate over school supplies is not all happening in a vacuum, either. passed by Congress will reshape family budgets and require families to put more money into health care and groceries — and away from things like school supplies.

“When all of us are feeling squeezed at the grocery store, at the bank, at day care — it’s no wonder that frustrations are boiling over,” said Sondra Goldschein, the executive director of the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, in a statement to The 19th. “With school starting in the fall, can you blame teachers and parents — neither of whom should be on the hook for such expensive school supplies — for looking at each other and wondering who can possibly afford another hit to their family’s budget?”

Low-income families, predominantly families of color, will feel the squeeze the most both in their own budgets and cuts to school budgets. for the poorest families and Black workers, who have faced the brunt of cuts to government jobs, including many diversity, equity and inclusion positions, have seen in the past four months. 

Ailen Arreaza, the executive director of ParentsTogether, a national nonprofit that works to engage parents politically, said all of it is leading to a sense of uncertainty and instability among parents as the school year begins. 

This, Arreaza said, is what shouldn’t get lost in the discourse: “What we hear from parents time and time again is that they love their teachers. The issue here is not teachers versus parents. The real problem is the slashing of education budgets and the rising costs.” 

This year, many parents are also recognizing that. Now, alongside the angry videos are dozens others like this one that a mother posted on TikTok at the end of July:

“As a parent of an upcoming third grader, nothing has pissed me off more recently than watching all of these parents have to make videos about these mile-long school lists: five boxes of Kleenex, three bottles of hand sanitizers, two the three-bottle Clorox wipes. Y’all want loose leaf paper, pens, pencils, markers, crayons, construction paper, and then have the nerve to say, ‘Don’t put your kid’s name on none of the supplies,’” . 

“But what really takes my anger over the edge is the fact that you did not ask for nothing for yourself, baby. What do you want? As a teacher that is about to have my children from August to May for seven, eight hours a day you can have whatever you like. I’m [the rapper] T.I. You can have whatever you like.”

Just three days before the start of school, Relinda Nakasone picked up her children’s classroom supply list from Lunalilo Elementary and searched the emptying shelves of Fisher Hawaiʻi for erasers, markers and more. Nakasone had waited until her husband got paid to start in on the list for their two children, but the $200 total price tag would be a financial burden for the family.

Nakasone planned to buy as many items as possible, but said she might have to hold off on some until her husband gets paid again. In particular, she said, the prices of hand sanitizer and paper towels seemed to have increased over last year.

“Whatever we’re short on, then hopefully they can cover,” Nakasone said, adding the school often provides students with supplies their families can’t afford. “If not, then they’re just going to have to wait until dad gets paid again.”

Most of Hawaiʻi’s public elementary schools send supply lists to families near the end of summer, requesting students bring staples like backpacks and pencils on the first day of class. But some parents say the pressure of buying everything on those lists is financially draining, especially when they’re expected to contribute communal supplies, like boxes of tissues or reams of paper, and more specialized items like watercolors and recorders for music class.

HawaiÊ»i schools are not supposed to require students to buy things in exchange for a grade or extra credit, according to a  issued to principals over the summer. But the guidance is vague, schools don’t always communicate this to families and HawaiÊ»i has no policies specifying what principals can and cannot request in supply lists, leaving parents feeling pressured to spend big at start of the year.

While campuses serving low-income families tend to keep their supply requests short or do away with the lists altogether, families may find themselves spending more than $150 on supplies at schools in wealthier communities.

When families can’t afford school supplies, it often falls to teachers or principals to fundraise or use their own money to backfill.

In California, the state constitution and  crack down on lengthy supply requests from districts, specifying that schools must provide a free public education and can’t require families to purchase supplies. The HawaiÊ»i Constitution lacks the same protections for students, and recent state efforts to provide schools with more funds for supplies have fizzled.

“It’s stressful financially and emotionally,” Nakasone said. “But then it’s something that we’ve got to do.”

A Range Of Requests

In his strongly worded June 20 memo to principals prohibiting schools from asking students to purchase items in exchange for grades, Superintendent Keith Hayashi made it clear that doing so is unfair to poorer families: “This action can be construed as unequal treatment of students who cannot otherwise afford to bring in certain items or participate fully in these activities due to a lack of finances,” he wrote.

Yet because the memo stayed silent on requiring families to furnish school supplies, principals have discretion in how to handle their lists, leading to wide variation among schools.

At Kamaile Academy in Waiʻanae, Principal Paul Kepka cut down his school supply list so families don’t have to spend more than $25 this year. Purchasing supplies can be a financial challenge for families, he said, especially if they have more than one child attending the charter school.

The school has received donations of backpacks and pencils, Kepka said, and he set aside money in his budget this year to cover hand soap, paper towels and other sanitary supplies that parents often purchase for classrooms elsewhere. While Kepka wants families to bring in whatever they can afford from the school’s shortened list, his main focus is making sure kids have strong attendance records this year.

“The number one thing I need from families is their support to get their kids to school,” Kepka said.

Miriam Webb, a parent of two students at Lincoln Elementary, said the supply list still feels like an expectation, not a suggestion or donation request from the school. While she doesn’t mind contributing classroom supplies, the price of some items — like a $25 backpack from Walmart — came as a surprise this year.

At Kaʻiulani Elementary, Principal Bebi Davis said she tries to keep her supply list minimal, especially since the school receives donations from local businesses and community organizations to support low-income families. While she wants families to pitch in however they can, Davis said she reminds parents that they don’t need to purchase everything from the list if they can’t afford it.

“If they show up with nothing on the first day of school, we will provide it,” Davis said. 

But supply lists at other schools — often located in more affluent communities — are more extensive. For example, Kāhala Elementary’s  includes nearly 40 items, ranging from a set of 12 oil pastel crayons to two types of Sharpie pens. At Walmart, that list would cost families roughly $190, , which runs school supply requests through retailers such as Target and Amazon to estimate their cost.

Catherine Payne, a former Board of Education chair and longtime principal at Farrington High School, said principals are typically attuned to their communities’ needs and will work with families to provide for their children if supplies are too expensive. But principals could use additional guidance from district or state leaders, she said, particularly about finding alternative ways to purchase supplies and communicating their expectations around supply lists.

A Policy Question

At ʻIlima Intermediate, teacher Sarah Milianta-Laffin estimates that a quarter of her students start the year without all of their supplies. While the school stockpiles folders and pencils to fill the gap, Milianta-Laffin said, she’s also solicited donations or used her own money to purchase supplies to help parents who are struggling financially.

Teachers at low-income schools seem to spend more of their own money on supplies, Milianta-Laffin said, especially if parents aren’t able to donate items or fundraise to cover classroom expenses. A  from 2023 found that HawaiÊ»i educators spent an average of $953 of their own money on school supplies. 

“The need outweighs the supply in terms of what our kids are facing in our public schools,” Milianta-Laffin said.

In recent years, lawmakers have introduced several proposals to  for teachers and families, but most efforts to provide free supplies to students have stalled. 

In 2022, the state set aside roughly $800,000 to fund supplies at 20 low-income schools. The one-year pilot reduced families’ financial burden and improved students’ sense of belonging in schools,  the DOE submitted to the Legislature at the end of the initiative. Two principals reported that families transferred to their school when they heard supplies would be free.

Kepka, whose school participated in the pilot program, said Kamaile Academy used the extra funds to purchase supplies in bulk throughout the year. Having the extra support allowed kids to simply focus on their academics instead of worrying about necessities, he said.

But the pilot never became a permanent program. Rep. Justin Woodson  in 2023 to extend it to 2025, but the bill didn’t pass and was never reintroduced.

Woodson said he’s not sure why lawmakers never reconsidered the pilot, especially since it received such positive reviews from families and the education department. Moving forward, Woodson said he would support providing low-income families with free school supplies, but funding could be difficult as Hawaiʻi faces cuts to its federal dollars.

Even in California, districts’ compliance with the provisions of the education code and the constitution likely varies throughout the state, said Julie Marsh, a professor of education at the University of Southern California. It’s not always clear to parents that supply lists are optional, she said.

The state has cracked down on lengthy supply lists for parents. Last year, a  urged schools to stop sending out the lists, arguing that it violated students’ access to free education protected by the California Constitution and pressured parents into making expensive purchases.

“Having a state policy on the books that says this speaks volumes about what’s important, what we mean by free education,” Marsh said. “There’s a lot of other elements that go into learning, and we want to ensure that all students have equal access.”

In Michigan, the state Supreme Court ruled that schools  to purchase their own supplies, since that state’s constitution also protects students’ access to a free education.

Unlike other states, the  does not specify the right to free public education. While the HawaiÊ»i Board of Education could create a policy similar to California requiring schools to provide free supplies to students, it would be difficult for schools to follow this mandate without extra funding from the Legislature, said Board of Education Chair Roy Takumi.

Schools currently have no extra pot of money to buy supplies for their students, Takumi said, although he supports using state dollars to help low-income families afford supplies.

Milianta-Laffin, the teacher at ʻIlima Intermediate, said it should ultimately fall on the state to provide schools with enough funds to cover supplies, rather than shifting the responsibility to teachers or families.

“It is an economic justice issue,” she said. “You see economic anxiety in the families, you see economic anxiety in the schools.” 

Jamie Epps did not expect to spend a lot of her own money on school supplies when she decided to take a teaching job for the fall of 2023.

Her mother convinced her to teach as a source of income while Epps attended nursing school. A retired teacher herself, Epps’ mom also gave her some advice.

“She told me I probably would have to buy classroom decorations with my money, like bulletin boards and posters,” Epps said. “But that is not what happened.”

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ Newsletter

Epps was surprised when she first stepped into her Florida classroom and found there were no supplies available: no paper, no staplers, not even dry-erase markers. In the following months, she spent over $6,000 to stock basic supplies and materials to teach science.

Epps’s experience on her first days as a teacher is an extreme but generally familiar version of what almost every American teacher goes through. The reported that 95% of public school teachers reported spending their own money to buy supplies for the classroom in the most recent data available — without getting reimbursed.

Many teachers can in classroom expenses from their taxes, but they often spend way more than that. In a survey conducted by the crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose of 2,500 teachers who used the platform, educators reported .

Like Epps, most teachers spend most of their money on essential materials such as paper, pencils, and markers. Chalkbeat asked educators to share how much they and what they spend it on. More than 120 teachers across the country responded.

They reported spending anywhere from $65 to $6,000. Their purchases included items to make students more comfortable and learning more enjoyable. Many said they expected to spend more on students this year than last.

Below, some of these teachers share in their own words how and why they spend money out of their own pockets on their classrooms.

A comfortable place for students is teacher’s goal

Judy Hall is an English teacher at Barringer High School in Newark, New Jersey

I’ve been teaching for 25 years and am used to spending my own money. Part of my expenses are resources for teaching: I subscribe to some newspapers since I use articles to teach English, and I buy books for my classroom’s library.

I also buy décor items: It is important that the classroom is comfortable and cozy for the students and for myself, since I spend most of my day there. Many of my students are food insecure, so I try to keep snacks and protein bars with me. I also keep menstrual products, a sewing kit, a full body mirror, and first aid supplies.

Last year, I paid around $1,500, and I expect to spend the same amount this year. It is more than I was used to, mainly because the price of food has increased so much.

I like that kids feel like they can drop by for additional help. I am a very strict teacher. In my class, everyone has to follow the rules and do their work. Having this kind of homey experience helps build a stronger connection.

Students with disabilities need appropriate equipment

Ellen Brody-Kirmss is a special education teacher at Clara Barton High School, in Brooklyn, New York

I have been teaching for 19 years and, in the beginning, I spent much more money than I do now. I didn’t have lesson plans, or a curriculum, or even my own classroom. Because of that, I had to buy a rolling cart that I could bring from one place to another.

I am a special education teacher, and both my parents were, too. Back in their day, which is ancient history now, the materials that would help the students they were teaching weren’t available: They had to be inventive. I am part of that tradition.

This year, I am teaching a course to students with intellectual disabilities who are part of the [Academics, Career, and Essential Skills] Program. In high school, there’s nothing in ready-made equipment appropriate for them, and each student has specific needs. I bought calculators, headphones, different writing instruments, and tools to help kids read. I got a lot of pictures and word games for students too, because they struggle with discourse. I expect to spend up to $800 from my own pocket this year.

I’m trying to get the school to buy a particular online curriculum for math. If they don’t and it’s cheap enough, I’ll buy it, but I don’t want to have to do that.

Teacher wants classroom to be ‘best place on Earth’

Mindy Gunderson is a first grade teacher at Hayden Canyon Charter in Hayden, Idaho

This year, I spent about $2,000 to get started. My biggest expense was in supplies for an independent workstation and classroom decorations. When kids finish their work, they can pick an activity from a chart where I list the independent workstations: There are building pieces, sensory boards, STEM toys, math manipulatives, and so on.

I don’t know if everybody agrees with me, but these items are essential to me. I wholeheartedly believe that learning takes place through play. So, in a first-grade classroom, I want to incorporate as much play as possible. Through this, kids also develop a sense of community because they get together to play, build things, and do work at the stations.

I want students to love coming to school. When I incorporate things they enjoy, they want to go to school and learn. Once that happens, I can teach them anything. And if that means I have to invest a little bit of my money, I’m OK with that because I want the relationship and my classroom to be the best place on Earth.

‘I don’t ever want to go back to teaching’

Jamie Epps is a science teacher at Hialeah Senior High School in Hialeah, Florida

On my first day as a teacher, I didn’t bring anything because I heard teachers are given a little starter pack. My mom, who had been a teacher for over 20 years, also told me that I would probably have to buy classroom decorations, like a bulletin board.

That’s not the situation I lived in when I walked into the classroom: there were no pencils, paper, or markers. I had to buy everything, from staplers to printer ink. Over the 2023-2024 school year, I spent over $6,000, including materials for science experiments. I bought a class pet, a rabbit, and a fish tank so that we could study marine science.

This year, the district provided a little kit with a dry-erase marker, some hall passes, and a package of post-its. I am finishing nursing school, and I don’t ever want to go back to teaching after this experience.

Teacher salary raises headed back into classroom costs

Polly Franklin is a Spanish teacher at Lowell Senior High School in Lowell, Indiana

As a Spanish teacher, most of what I spend out of my own money goes to subscriptions to technology that give my students the best chance of learning and save me an abundance of time. These subscriptions can add up — I spent about $300 last year and am thinking I’ll spend closer to $500 this school year.

There’s a lot on the Internet for Spanish educators, but I don’t have time to sift through all the materials in the world to find ones appropriate to my class. The ones I pay for on my own include , a website [specifically] for Spanish teachers, that gives me games and authentic songs and lyrics to bring into my classroom.

Like all teachers, my time outside of school is stretched thin during the school year. I am a full-time caretaker of a family member and I’m getting a master’s degree. Even though I spend my own money reluctantly, I know it’s worth it for the kids’ enjoyment of lessons and also for my own sanity. It is sad to me that, for a lot of us, any small salary raise we get seems to just go right back into the classroom.

Classroom supplies take priority over helping student clubs

Ceretta Morris is a Language Arts and social studies teacher at John D. Shoop Academy in Chicago

This year has been particularly challenging. In the past, I taught only one grade level; now, I teach three. This has led to me needing a wider variety of materials and resources. I teach four classes of 25 kids daily, so I buy a lot of stuff. I ordered a box of 500 pre-sharpened pencils, heavy-duty pencil sharpeners, folders, and boxes of copy paper.

I’m the queen of taking advantage of all available donations: Donor Choose, AdoptAClassroom, GoFundMe 
 I do all of those, but I still spent about $600 out of my pocket. I also tried to put some of the material in a supply list, but getting middle school parents to shop for school supplies is hard.

If I didn’t have to spend money on essential supplies, I would love to support the funding for our school clubs. I co-sponsor our school’s Junior , which [gathers] high achieving students to perform services to the community, and I see how much funding they still need.

Wellington Soares is Chalkbeat’s national education reporting intern based in New York City. Contact Wellington at wsoares@chalkbeat.org.

Caroline Bauman is Chalkbeat’s deputy managing editor for engagement.

This story was originally published on Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

According to a survey of more than 3,000 teachers conducted by AdoptAClassroom.org, a nonprofit crowdfunding platform, teachers received a median classroom school supply budget of $200 last school year – an amount that 93% of the respondents said was not enough to cover their in-class needs.

Many teachers choose to subsidize the remainder of the costs, but it comes at a steep price. Out-of-pocket spending among teachers has increased by 44% since 2015, the survey found, with teachers reporting that they spent an average of $860 of their own money on supplies and other expenses during the 2022-2023 school year.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ Newsletter

“Teachers spend their classroom supply budget fast,” Melissa Hruza, Vice President, Marketing & Development at AdoptAClassroom.org, told ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ. “Even though they are willing to provide basic items like food and supplies for their students, their ability to pay for it is decreasing.”

One big reason: teacher pay has failed to keep up with the sky high rate of inflation in recent years. Adjusted for inflation, teachers are making $3,644 less than they did a decade ago, according to the National Education Association.

Communities and parents appear to be recognizing the challenges teachers face. AdoptAClassroom.org said its site has received more donations to teachers for the 2024-2025 back-to-school season than last year.

“Comparing July and August 2024 to the same period in 2023, the number of contributions to educators on AdoptAClassroom.org is currently up 13% from 2023 to 2024 so far this year,” Hruza said. “There’s also been a 9% increase in the number of both new fundraisers and total number of teachers with active campaigns.”

GoFundMe has seen a similar bump. So far this year, more than $12 million has been raised for K-12 education on the crowdfunding platform. In 2023, total funds raised for educators reached over $24 million — a 7% increase from the previous year.

“[P]eople don’t always see the hidden costs that end up on teachers’ hands, like providing additional resources for students who can’t afford small items like pencils,” Shawn An, a first-year earth and environmental science teacher at Julius L. Chambers High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, told ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ.

To ensure he and his students were fully prepared for this school year, An launched a GoFundMe campaign called A Classroom for Future Scientists, with a goal to raise $1,000. He ended up receiving $1,045 in donations.

“What this funding created is the opportunity for me to bring the basic necessities into the classroom I need to succeed, like organizers and writing utensils to grade with,” An said. “It’s helped me create a space where I can be efficient and to find resources for students to engage in the work we’re asking them to do.”

Lightening the load

To help teachers afford the supplies they need, GoFundMe launched its own fundraising initiative called the Education Opportunity Fund. Since the fund’s launch in 2020, GoFundMe has raised more than $240,000 and has distributed more than 550 grants to teachers in order to help them afford classroom supplies and other educational resources, Leigh Lehman, GoFundMe director of communications, told ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ.

“The grants were an additional step to offer help to educators and lighten their load a bit, and there are still grants available for teachers who are in need,” Lehman said.

Grants of can be put toward common classroom items like school supplies, books and class decorations. Funds can also be used for other educational resources or items like field trips, playground equipment, updated technology and extracurricular activities.

Similar to GoFundMe’s grant initiative, AdoptAClassroom.org provides funding through their Spotlight Fund Grants program. This program targets classroom initiatives that address things like social-emotional wellness, Indigenous language, arts, STEM education and racial equity. Eligible teachers can apply for grants of $750 or more on AdoptAClassroom.org.

“People all around the country want to find ways to help more teachers,” GoFundMe’s Lehman said. “They understand there is a gap in funding and that teachers are incredibly stressed.”

Keeping kids engaged

Hana Syed Khan, a fourth grade teacher in New Jersey’s South River Public Schools district, started her own GoFundMe campaign, A Classroom Built on Kindness, in August to support her efforts to make her classroom “as useful, accessible and hands-on as possible.”

Entering her fifth year of teaching at a new school in a new district, Syed Khan knew she had to be more creative with the amount of classroom space she has, materials needed and the resources available.

Her campaign raised $1,920 in funds, which she used to purchase a spin-the-wheel device, a carpet for reading time, books for the classroom library and the classroom staple Better Than Paper.

“The [kids] want to touch everything, and they should be able to. It’s their room,” Syed Khan told ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ.

Through sharing via family group chats, her husband’s LinkedIn account, word-of-mouth and other social media platforms, like and , Syed Khan said she “feels fortunate to have set up the fundraiser and leverage community support for her classroom.”

She plans to keep her fundraiser open to donations so she can continue to afford classroom activities and incentives with hopes to keep students engaged through the year.

“Students in this district suffer from chronic absenteeism, which may stem from lack of transportation, parents’ schedule or a lack of motivation for themselves,” Syed Khan said. “Classroom incentives, like parties at the end of the month, are a really big part of what I want to use the funds for next.”

Drawing from his own school experience, An said he understands that many of his students face challenges outside of the classroom. Bringing smaller tools and supplies like writing utensils and paper to class is not the first thing on their mind.

“That can be a real barrier for students to access what teachers are asking them to do,” An said. “Using the donations to directly address those barriers helps students stay engaged to do their best in the classroom.”

He used a portion of the donations he has raised to purchase a rolling cart that allows for easy access to classroom supplies.

An and Syed Khan hope their efforts inspire other teachers to overcome the fear of asking for help. For Syed Khan, it was difficult to find the right words for the campaign and the video she included to go along with it. She wanted to ensure her classroom needs were as clear as possible to potential donors.

“Trying to figure out what to say to grab people’s attention was the most challenging part,” Syed Khan said.

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” she said. “But when people see someone speaking and explaining what the funds will be used for, it can attract many people because they see a real human.”

An experienced similar doubts about asking for help. He credits his family for providing feedback on his campaign narrative and helping him to frame his message.

“My family and I went through a co-writing process to get the point across that this was me, just as a person, asking a personal favor of people who were available,” An said.

GoFundMe currently hosts webinars for educators and education-related organizations to help them learn how to effectively fundraise. They’ve also updated their with tips for teachers to share their campaign and keep communities engaged.

“Seeing more teachers turn to external sources of funding to help support their students’ needs is definitely eye-opening,” An said. “It highlights the fact that not as much care is funneled into education as I think it should be.”

Alaska public school teachers short of supplies this year have a new source to turn to for funding, and it’s not the local school budget. Each teacher could receive $650 to $750 from the state in federal pandemic relief money.

Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development will devote $2 million in federal pandemic relief money to fund teacher requests.

“By helping teachers directly with their classroom needs, DEED is supporting our teachers in our shared mission to provide an excellent education for every student everyday,” said department Acting Commissioner Heidi Teshner in a news release.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ Newsletter

The department will fund the requests through an online tool called DonorsChoose, a crowdfunding site specifically for education. The news comes less than two months after Gov. Mike Dunleavy .

To access the money, the state instructs teachers to create crowdfunding profiles and requests. The Department of Education and Early Development will then fund the project up to $1,000. Teachers may request up to $1,400, but then additional donors would have to cover the difference.

While the department said the state funding per teacher would be up to $1,000, it suggests that teachers only request because of taxes, fees, and a suggested donation to the New York-based non-profit.

“We’re so grateful that the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development is partnering with DonorsChoose, and that the department is using this innovative way to help students start the school year strong,” said DonorsChoose CEO Alix Guerrier in a news release. “This initiative is an investment in the frontline wisdom of Alaska teachers.”

On the instructions webpage, the Department of Education and Early Development said the money is to “reward the sacrifices and extra effort teachers made during the COVID-19 pandemic.” It comes from the department’s nearly $16 million from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020. The department has until the end of September to commit to spend the less than $50,000 that remains.

Alaska teachers already use DonorsChoose as a way to supplement their finances. According to the , individual donors have funded more than $5 million in projects at more than 350 Alaska schools.

That is especially true this year. A 2023 back-to-school from Deloitte reports that after 18 months of inflation, parents of K-12 students aren’t planning to spend as much on back-to-school supplies as they did last year, due to inflation and a need to replenish their savings accounts after the pandemic. A from World Remit shows that the cost of school supplies in the United States has increased by over 25% compared with 2022. 

Though inflation is the it has been since March 2021, high prices are still stressing shoppers and increasing their reliance on local and national back-to-school drives. The nonprofit organizations that sponsor those drives, in turn, are struggling to meet the growing demand.

’s back-to-school supplies initiative, called Operation Backpack, has been an integral part of their charity for more than 20 years. around the country provide homeless students with l backpacks filled with essential materials like paper, pencils, notebooks, hand sanitizer and water bottles. They prioritize giving top-of-the-line products directly to children and families, rather than schools or teachers, so students won’t have to show up empty-handed on the first day, making them a possible target of bullying or harassment.

Jatrice Gaiter, vice president of external affairs, said the need is increasing.

“There is a paradox here in that the people that need our services, that number is growing substantially,” Gaiter said. “At the same time, the people and the money that we as nonprofits have to provide them are shrinking, because of inflation. It’s just that everything is so much more expensive this year. And making sure that we have enough for people with multiple children, that’s a big issue. These programs often act like everybody has one child. There are people that have three and five and six kids, and we want to make sure that every single child in a family has a backpack.”

The stress is being felt at the local level as well. a nonprofit organization that offers athletic and academic afterschool programs, has been hosting back-to-school supply drives for low-income families for years. This month, the organization had its biggest turnout yet, giving out over 500 backpacks filled with supplies like paper, crayons, notebooks and pencil holders. The event also offered free food, haircuts, health vendors educating community members on health crises in the area and two $250 scholarships donated by local restaurants. 

“The need always increases, because although the state of Florida has a tax-free weekend, which this year had been extended to a month long, on the flip side of that, the cost of living is rising, employers aren’t giving raises,” Shaun Hartsfield, founder and president of HYPE Pensacola said.

Hartsfield said the record-breaking event couldn’t have succeeded without help from other local organizations.

“People’s wages at their job isn’t going up, but the cost of living is going up, so although there’s tax-free, parents still can’t afford them,” he said. “Everybody has to have electricity, so that’s always going to be their priority. With just the cost of living being high, there’s always going to be an increase every year in people needing the assistance that we provide.”

Back-to-school shopping also drains many teachers’ wallets as they use their own money to buy classroom supplies. On average, public school teachers spend nearly $500 without being reimbursed, according to from the National Center for Education Statistics. 

is a nonprofit organization that supports teachers and students in Title I schools where at least half the students are enrolled in the National School Lunch Program. In 2022, the foundation gave more than in free school supplies and classroom resources. But like Gaiter, Michaela Becker, the foundation’s senior director of national network, said inflation is making it harder to help those in need. The organization relies heavily on grants and funding, so when families and foundations have less to donate, the foundation has less to give.

“Costs have gone up for everyone,” Becker said, including for suppliers that contribute to the foundation. Bic, one of its top donors, has seen a rise in the cost to manufacture its products, leaving them with fewer pens to give away.

One of the organization’s biggest initiatives is the Teacher Resource Center in Roseville, Minnesota, where educators can fill up carts with classroom supplies for free. There is also a Supply a Student program, where $25 donations equate to one backpack full of necessities, and a Supply a Teacher program, where teachers receive two boxes of supplies — enough to last a class of 24 students for a semester.

Becker said organizations like theirs are crucial in times of inflation, but the need never stops.