The Cost of Teaching

My wife walks into my "office" and says I look like Scrooge poring over receipts on Christmas Eve. That's pretty ironic since I'm actually compiling a list of materials I've purchased this year for teaching - my hard earned money used to subsidize the NYC school system. If you added up the money teachers donate to their classrooms and the money parents donate for their children's classrooms (I have 2 children in public school and there are constant requests for materials/supplies/money in one form or another) the amount would probably equal what many other medium-sized districts in the US spend outright on education:

Let's see, approximately 100,000 teachers, and I'm guessing low at an average of $250 per teacher = $25,000,000 additional dollars donated by employees of the system.

Then let's add in the parent donations - including "candy sales" and other donations disguised as purchases (there's a ridiculous mark-up on fund-raising sales). There are approximately 1,000,000 school children in NYC. Based on my expenditures, knowing what goes on where I teach, and knowing what happens in other schools around the city, I would suggest an average of "only" about $50 per child, city-wide. That's another $50,000,000 in donations from parents to the system.

Grand Total: $75,000,000

I'm way too busy to seriously research these numbers, but I certainly invite anyone else to refute my calculations with real data.

As for my personal expenditures, so far I'm up to $542.57, just based on receipts that I can find quickly. You can subtract $200.00 for "teachers' choice" that we are reimbursed. So out of my pocket would be $342.57 and there is a lot more left of this school year. It doesn't include some purchases for which I haven't found receipts yet. It also doesn't include a lot of nickel-&-dime purchases that I make in cash periodically. Most of the items included are basic supplies that schools should provide for teachers as a matter of course - papers, photocopies, pencils, pens, markers, bulletin board supplies, glue sticks, etc. Some items are for science labs - either equipment that isn't available in the school or consumable materials. I will keep this list updated throughout the year and see where things stand in June.