Local teachers reliant on resource centers to stock classrooms with supplies
As area kids are heading back to school, teachers are spending up to $750 of their own money on vital supplies for their classrooms. That’s according to data from the National Education Association. As IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports, local teachers are growing more dependent on resource centers.
Misty White teaches at Inspire Academy in Muncie. It’s her first year in the classroom, and says she found the constant need for school supplies to be a very big wake-up call.
“I think especially these days with like social media and TikTok you see lots of teachers in their classrooms, and I think it’s just kind of assumed that those things are provided for us, but they’re not,” she said. “And so it is a huge awakening when you go into the classroom and it’s pretty much empty, and you have to create something on your own.”
White, and other teachers at Inspire Academy, are reimbursed up to $1,000 on approved classroom materials. Despite that reimbursement however, White reports that she still paid at least $2,000 out of pocket during her first year teaching. She says that she used to complain about her kids’ teachers having a first-day-of-school supply list, but now she understands why there is such a need for basic classroom essentials.
This summer, a school supply drive by Muncie’s Classroom Connections of East Central Indiana supplied local teachers with more than 2,000 items, totaling over $60,000 in value.
“I go to Classroom Connections probably once a month. I tell everybody that I can about Classroom Connections, because it’s just a huge resource.”
Education experts say that the growing need for school supplies stems from rising inflation and low system funding. The NEA says under-resourced schools and the expectation that educators will spend their own money on supplies is one factor that is driving educators away from the profession.
Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu.