{"id":149281,"date":"2022-09-21T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/?p=149281"},"modified":"2022-09-27T21:22:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T02:22:40","slug":"the-true-cost-of-public-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/truthforteachers.com\/the-true-cost-of-public-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The true cost of education if teachers didn’t spend out-of-pocket"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, school budgets have plummeted, but expectations soared and challenges surmounted.<\/h2>\n

Meager budgets continue to force teachers to do more with less, with many educators choosing to \u201cdo it for the kids\u201d by making up the cost difference out of the goodness of their own hearts and out of the depth of their own pockets.<\/p>\n

While the news shares updates of schools banning certain books and we hear of states passing laws qualifying any warm body to step into a classroom and teach, it is impossible to not recognize the ways that our schools function as government organizations subject to the sway of political tides.<\/p>\n

These past few years have exemplified the fact that our public schools are innately political.<\/p>\n

At the most basic level, our schools are beholden to taxpayers to show that they are responsibly spending money in a way that benefits their students and increases standardized test scores. Financial accountability for government-funded organizations should be at the forefront of every taxpayer’s mind, yet there is an unnerving silence surrounding the fact that governing officials have no idea how much our nation\u2019s schools truly cost to operate.<\/p>\n

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As a school administrator, I encourage public school teachers to rethink the impact of spending personal money (and personal time) on their classrooms. While this \u201cdo it for the kids\u201d mindset may serve our students well in the short term, it undermines any larger long-term effort to fully fund public education.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s naively assume that everyone in our country wants what is best for public schools and there is no secret agenda to privatize public education.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s assume that there is a genuine attempt to fully fund our classrooms with not just the bare necessities, but also the materials required for 21st-century hands-on learning, critical thinking, arts integration, and even a few nice touches such as a soft rug, a lamp to cast a cozy glow on a dreary morning, and a welcome sign posted on the door.<\/p>\n

How are these trustworthy politicians supposed to determine the true cost of public education?<\/p>\n

In a field where data-based decision-making is a buzzword, there is astoundingly no reliable data that can be referenced to determine the true cost of our schools.<\/p>\n

Yes, districts submit budget proposals that dutifully lay out the cost of the school year ahead, but these are highly supplemented with uncounted hours of personal time and behind-the-scenes personal shopping carts full of supplies invisible to any itemized budget breakdown.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Our resourceful schools are doing more with less, but they are also doing more by dipping into their staff\u2019s pockets.<\/p>\n

I also type \u201cresourceful\u201d with a tinge of remorse as I know our schools shouldn\u2019t be applauded for their savvy money-saving maneuvers and forced resourcefulness when their backs are against the wall.<\/p>\n

Teachers, it\u2019s easy to fall victim into the \u201cdo it for the kids\u201d mindset. With the quickly surmounting popularity of alternative classroom crowd-funding efforts such as Donors Choose, grant writing opportunities funded by the private for-profit sector, and Amazon Wish lists sent to friends and family, it\u2019s even easier to trick yourself into thinking you\u2019re cutting back your personal spending while still contributing to the inaccurate picture of the cost of public education.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve slipped into a space where getting the actual funding that you need for your classroom requires gambling your time with grant writing or Donors Choose because it\u2019s more effective to write requests to anonymous donors than to write to our public officials to tell them that our students deserve better.<\/p>\n

In the interest of full disclosure I, too, have made an Amazon Wish List and sheepishly posted the link to my personal Facebook. I\u2019ve spent time crafting a Donors Choose, NC Bright Ideas grant, and several others with my fingers crossed that it will be funded and that my time would not have been spent in vain.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also advocated for changes to school-based and state-based policies that better serve our students in the long-run and worked towards a sustainable understanding of what it costs to educate our students while recruiting and retaining highly qualified educators.<\/p>\n

I encourage well-intentioned teachers to think about the phrase \u201cimpact over intent.\u201d The intent of dipping lovingly into your own pocket, spending evenings in your classroom, and lesson planning on a Sunday morning is undoubtedly positive. The long-term impact, however, is a continually distorted bottom line for how much it costs to run our classrooms – a budget that is exponentially warped under the guise of \u201cdoing it for the kids.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I also understand that the immediate<\/i><\/b> impact of this out-of-pocket spending is a student having an \u201caha\u201d moment, a lightbulb clicking during an engaging lesson, and a student proudly passing their End of Grade reading assessment.<\/p>\n

Like most things, multiple possible answers lie in the murky shades of gray between black and white. A few of these possible answers can be found in the options below.<\/p>\n

Here are some various approaches you may consider:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n