You Spend Whaaaaat?!

New wheels for you or new reading material for them? In an NEA online survey, educators reveal their generous spending habits and add up the piles of cash they fork over for classroom equipment and student supplies.

By Mary Ellen Flannery

Photo by Jan Underwood

For her budding Van Goghs, New Jersey kindergarten teacher Karen Burrow bought art books; for her story-lovers, she stocked her room with children's literature. She couldn't pass up a publication that matched a current classroom theme. And she couldn't resist the latest research in education.

But that's not all. On the first day of school, she gave every kid a book to keep—"to welcome them on their new adventure"—plus two more at Christmas. "I love to read," Burrow explains—and she wants to spark the same passion for literacy in her students.

That kind of enthusiasm, while admirable, also is expensive. Last year, according to an unscientific online NEA Today survey of 660 members, the average educator spent $1,180 in non-reimbursed expenses—mostly on books ($254), lesson materials ($215), and incentives for students ($174). Yes, you sacrificed, shared, and subsidized. And, hopefully, you wrote it all down—next month, educators can deduct $250 in out-of-pocket costs from their federal taxes.

Photo by Calixtro Romias

"Teaching is an expensive job," notes Micah Rodriguez, a California elementary teacher who shelled out $3,000 last year. About a third of her output went for motivational gifts—things like pencil boxes and math flash cards—to reward her English-learners for progress that might not meet the "standards" of traditional honor rolls.

From seaweed to turkey feed, from Nerf balls to cow eyeballs, the shopping list is innovative, extensive, and a little eccentric. (Yes, real eyeballs! Chris Vasquez uses the bovine peepers to teach San Diego fifth-graders about the anatomy of sight.)

Photo by John Terhune

"I still have dill pickles in the refrigerator!" exclaims Indiana media specialist Steve Spencer, who made "green monsters" with his students after they read about a boy who accidentally drops a dill pickle into the fudge at his grandfather's ice cream shop. He, of course, bought the pickles.

Frequently, though, it's not the extras, but basic necessities, that you're buying. You spent a good chunk of change on reading books: Dayton history teacher Monica Houston threw down hundreds this past summer at Denver's African-American history museum. You coughed up cash to paint and clean classrooms. Two of you reported buying copier machines!

Last year, Utah special education teacher Mary Pearson made her own weighted vest—used to help students with severe disabilities to "de-stimulate" and focus—and she frequently makes and pays for other adaptive devices. "If I don't get enough money (from the district), I have to spend my money—or my students don't have what they need to learn," she says.

Sometimes students don't even have what they need to get dressed in the morning. Rather than watch them walking through winter without a warm coat—one student told his teacher he "couldn't find" socks or underwear in his house—many of you step in.

And sometimes, you find yourself taking care of the whole family. Patricia Ruof, a kindergarten teacher in Buffalo, where salaries have been frozen by school officials, loaded up her credit card with $1,000 for car repairs for a student's mother. Without it, the recent widow would have lost her job and apartment. Meanwhile, a Missouri teacher bought an urn to keep safe the ashes of a student's mother.

Photo by Scott Shaw

But only Jan Price, a health teacher in eastern Ohio, bought strapless bras. It might seem odd, Price concedes, but she's been buying, begging, and borrowing semi-formal wear for years so that her teenage students can attend band and choir concerts, homecomings, and proms.

"What can I say? I love these kids and all of them deserve to feel special and to fit in regardless of their family and financial situations," Price declares. And, like a veteran shopper, she adds, she once discovered bras on sale for $1 each.

"I couldn't pass that up!"

From books to bras to pickles—there's no limit on NEA members' spending to help their students, as Micah Rodriguez (top left), Steve Spencer (bottom left), and Jan Price (right) all know.

Biggest Spender!

Leotards, tights, and barres, oh my!

Photos by Larry Rose

For all the money Sara Minks spent on her students last year, she could have bought a new car. With $13,000—yes, $13,000!—Minks could have taken her own two children on an Alaskan cruise. Where did it all go? Minks, a high school dance teacher in Southern California, bought music to accompany ballet, jazz, and modern dance performances and videos of historical choreographers at work. She installed fans and ballet barres in her classroom studio, and dressed her kids in leotards, tights, and ballet shoes. She brought them to local productions—and even flew two talented students (and their mothers) across the country to Broadway.

Minks, who is a single mom herself, knows her spending habits have been, well, extreme. But without much time to fund-raise or any willingness to cut corners, "I just do it," she says.

She hopes to rein in her philanthropy this year, but not if it costs the kids, she adds. Her students, who are experiencing performing arts for the first time, "walk taller, gain self-confidence, and never miss practice. They cling to this outlet, and I can't imagine taking that away from them."