Pricier School Supplies Burden America's Teachers

昂贵的学习用品加重了美国教师的负担

Second grade teacher Demetria Richardson spends so much on school supplies she has a designated credit card to cover classroom expenses. Just don’t tell her husband what the balance is, she said. Usually, the 26-year veteran educator in Richmond, Virginia, spends about $500 on back-to-school items. Over the past month, she has already topped that — and she’s not done shopping.

二年级老师德米特里亚·理查森在学习用品上花了很多钱，她有一张指定的信用卡来支付课堂费用。她说，只是不要告诉她丈夫余额是多少。通常，这位在弗吉尼亚州里士满有26年经验的资深教育家会在返校用品上花费大约500美元。在过去的一个月里，她已经超过了这个数字——而且她还没有完成购物。

Crowdfunding on DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that lets individuals fund public school classroom projects, helps Richardson cover some of the costs on items like dry erase markers, pencils and printer ink. The school supply-stuffed backpacks that local churches distribute to families before the school year also help, Richardson said. Yet, none of this assistance stretches far enough to prevent teachers like her from dipping into their own wallets to serve students.

非营利组织DonorsChoose的众筹可以让个人为公立学校的教室项目提供资金，这有助于Richardson支付干擦记号笔，铅笔和打印机墨水等物品的部分费用。理查森说，当地教堂在学年之前分发给家庭的学校补给背包也有帮助。然而，这些援助都不足以阻止像她这样的老师投入自己的钱包为学生服务。

While covering the cost of classroom supplies is a challenge educators face annually, the burden on them has grown as the price of many learning materials has jumped by 20 percent in roughly five years.

虽然支付教室用品的费用是教育工作者每年面临的挑战，但随着许多学习材料的价格在大约五年内上涨了20% %，他们的负担也在增加。

“By the end of September,” Richardson estimated, the total on her credit card for school is “probably going to be close to $1,200.”

“到9月底，” 理查森估计，她上学的信用卡总额 “可能会接近1,200美元。

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods — and the supply chain disruptions that resulted — have partly been blamed for driving up the cost of school supplies. His freeze of over $6 billion in education funding on July 1, which he reversed before the end of that month, added to the problem by preventing schools, including Title I schools with large populations of economically disadvantaged students, from stocking classrooms with learning materials well ahead of the academic year.

唐纳德·特朗普总统对外国商品征收的关税-以及由此导致的供应链中断-被部分归咎于推高了学校用品的成本。他在7月1日冻结了超过60亿美元的教育资金，并在该月底之前将其撤消，这使问题更加严重，因为它阻止了包括拥有大量经济弱势学生的第一标题学校在内的学校在教室里存放学习材料。学年。

“It’s hard to understand that teachers have to buy all these supplies for themselves, for their classrooms and for students,” said Emma García, principal researcher for the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit that conducts research to improve education policy and practice. “I don’t think there’s any other profession in which the professional has to shoulder the supplies or the materials. But for teachers, it’s taken for granted that they will be there, that they are going to do the work no matter what.”

“很难理解教师必须为自己，教室和学生购买所有这些用品，” 学习政策研究所的首席研究员Emma garc í a说。“我不认为有任何其他职业的专业人员必须承担用品或材料。但对于教师来说，他们理所当然地会在那里，无论发生什么，他们都会做这项工作。“

Research indicates that virtually no educators are spared from spending their own money on their classrooms, according to García. Teachers at high-poverty schools told The 19th that, in addition to Trump’s tariffs and funding freeze, other factors have contributed to them paying more for goods. They pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic, when they saw prices start to rise and a cultural and economic shift in which students returned to class with few to no supplies, a trend they say persists today.

研究表明，根据garc í a的说法，几乎没有教育工作者可以避免将自己的钱花在教室上。高贫困学校的教师19日告诉记者，除了特朗普的关税和资金冻结外，其他因素也导致他们为商品支付更多费用。他们指出了新型冠状病毒肺炎大流行，当时他们看到价格开始上涨，文化和经济发生转变，学生们回到课堂上几乎没有补给，他们说这种趋势今天仍然存在。

“This year has definitely been a huge challenge because typically the schools would be able to give us some of the basics, like a stapler, pencils, paper,” said Emmanuela Louis, who teaches English Language Arts for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. School officials “haven’t been able to give us anything, so it’s like we have to rely heavily on DonorsChoose to even get resources for the kids to start the school year. It pretty much puts the most vulnerable kids at risk.”

“今年绝对是一个巨大的挑战，因为通常学校能够给我们一些基础知识，比如订书机，铅笔，纸，” Emmanuela Louis说，他在迈阿密-戴德县公立学校教授英语语言艺术。学校官员 “无法给我们任何东西，所以我们不得不严重依赖捐赠者选择，甚至为孩子们获得开始学年的资源。这几乎使最脆弱的孩子处于危险之中。

Through it all, teachers have served as the safety net children can count on when the system breaks down. Educators have taken on debt, found extra work and gone without much-needed personal items to prepare their classrooms — and their students — for another school year.

通过这一切，当系统崩溃时，教师充当了孩子们可以依靠的安全网。教育工作者承担了债务，找到了额外的工作，并且没有急需的个人物品来为下一个学年的教室和学生做准备。

Personal Sacrifices

个人牺牲

For Richardson, shelling out hundreds of dollars of her own money on school supplies means she won’t be able to buy the $150 pair of stylish Vionic orthopedic shoes that make it easier for her to stand all day.

对于理查森来说，将自己的数百美元花在学习用品上意味着她将无法购买150美元的时尚vonic矫形鞋，这使她整日站立更加容易。

“People think that we don’t like to look nice, too,” Richardson said. “We want to get a new back-to-school outfit, too, or a pair of shoes. But when it comes to our students, our students come first, and we go on the back burner.”

“人们认为我们也不喜欢看起来漂亮，” 理查森说。“我们也想买一套新的返校服装，或者一双鞋。但是，当涉及到我们的学生时，我们的学生是第一位的，而我们则处于次要地位。

Louis knows the feeling: Some years she has barely been able to afford back-to-school footwear and apparel herself. During others, she has gone without these items entirely because she had funneled so much money into her classroom at Jose De Diego Middle School in Miami. Although her district provides her with a $300 school supply stipend, a purchase as mundane as copy paper devours those funds instantly, she said.

路易斯知道这种感觉: 几年来，她自己几乎买不起返校的鞋类和服装。在其他情况下，她完全没有这些物品，因为她将这么多钱汇入了迈阿密何塞·德·迭戈中学的教室。她说，尽管她所在的地区为她提供了300美元的学校供应津贴，但像复印纸一样平凡的购买会立即吞噬这些资金。

“Three hundred dollars doesn’t go far at all,” said Louis, who has taught for 16 years. “When you’re thinking of supplies — folders and things like that — they’re not cheap. You’re buying at least three folders per student just to keep their items organized. Paper is also a necessity to copy things for them. We do have laptops, which kind of helps, but they don’t always go home with them, so they definitely need tangible items in their hands to write and copy things down.”

“三百美元根本走不了多远，” 教书16年的路易斯说。“当你想到用品 -- 文件夹之类的东西 -- 它们并不便宜。您为每个学生购买至少三个文件夹，以使他们的物品井井有条。纸张也是为他们复制东西的必要条件。我们确实有笔记本电脑，这很有帮助，但它们并不总是带着它们回家，所以他们肯定需要手中的有形物品来写下和复制东西。“

Altogether, Louis estimates that during any given school year, she spends about $2,500 to $3,000 on her classroom and students. And that doesn’t include the money the mother of two spends on supplies for her own children, a third grader and a ninth grader.

总的来说，路易斯估计，在任何一个学年，她在教室和学生身上的花费大约在2,500到3,000美元之间。这还不包括两个孩子的母亲为自己的孩子，一个三年级学生和一个九年级学生购买用品的钱。

Richardson’s classroom expenditures aren’t far behind, as she has spent as much as $2,000 outfitting her classroom at Henry L. Marsh III Elementary in Richmond throughout the school year. That’s well above the average educators spend on supplies, DonorsChoose has found, backing up previous research that revealed teachers at high-needs schools have more out-of-pocket expenses.

理查森的课堂支出并不落后，因为她整个学年都花了2,000美元在里士满的亨利·L·马什三世小学装修教室。DonorsChoose发现，这远远高于教育工作者在用品上的平均支出，支持先前的研究，该研究表明，高需求学校的教师有更多的自付费用。

“We ran a teacher survey earlier this spring, and we noticed that teachers are spending, on average, $655 of their own money on school supplies for their students and for their classroom,” said Kristina “Steen” Joye Lyles, vice president of equity and impact at DonorsChoose. “That’s an increase from what teachers reported last year, which was $610.”

“我们在今年春天早些时候进行了一项教师调查，我们注意到教师平均花费655美元自己的钱在学生和教室的学习用品上，” DonorsChoose公平和影响副总裁Kristina “Steen” Joye Lyles说。“这比去年教师报告的610美元有所增加。

Without DonorsChoose, Lyles said, teachers reported that they’d be spending over $1,400 of their own money on school supplies annually. “So, this is a trend that we’re watching closely.”

莱尔斯说，如果没有DonorsChoose，老师们报告说，他们每年将在自己的学校用品上花费超过1,400美元。“因此，这是我们正在密切关注的趋势。

García said paying for school supplies compounds financial pressures for teachers, who earn lower salaries compared with professionals in other careers that require college or graduate degrees. Moreover, teachers often take on student loan debt just to enter the field. Given this, any out-of-pocket costs are “going to be more burdensome for a teacher than for a non-teacher” covering work-related expenses, García contends. And the $300 deduction for classroom expenditures educators can claim on federal income tax returns hardly levels the playing field.

加西亚说，支付学校用品的费用给教师带来了财务压力，与其他需要大学或研究生学位的职业相比，教师的薪水较低。此外，教师经常承担学生贷款债务只是为了进入该领域。考虑到这一点，加西亚认为，任何自付费用 “对老师来说比非老师更沉重”，包括与工作相关的费用。教育工作者可以从联邦所得税申报表中扣除300美元的课堂支出，这几乎没有公平的竞争环境。

Richardson has felt obligated to subsidize her students’ needs with her own money because she teaches at a Title I school where nearly every pupil qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. Some years, most of her classroom expenses have gone toward snacks for students.

理查森觉得有义务用自己的钱补贴学生的需求，因为她在一所Title I学校任教，几乎每个学生都有资格享受免费或减价午餐。几年来，她的大部分课堂费用都花在了学生的零食上。

“Some parents send their own snacks, but we do have a lot of kids whose parents don’t, so we hate to see them sitting there needing that extra boost of energy but not having it,” she said. “You’re talking about snacks for maybe 20 kids, five times a week. That does add up.”

她说: “有些父母自己送零食，但我们确实有很多孩子的父母没有，所以我们讨厌看到他们坐在那里需要额外的能量，但却没有。”“你说的是20个孩子的零食，一周五次。这加起来 ”。

Also adding up is the rising cost of school supplies. This year, Richardson has paid more for crayons, glue sticks, composition books, folders and other materials than she remembers paying in recent years.

此外，学校用品的成本也在上涨。今年，理查森为蜡笔，胶棒，作文书，文件夹和其他材料支付的费用比她近年来记得的要多。

“I used to get folders for 50 cents apiece,” she said. “Now they’re almost 95 cents a folder. We used to be able to get boxes of crayons, but we can’t get them in bulk at the dollar store anymore. They said supply is low. Now, they’re like almost $2 for a 16-count box.”

“我过去常常以每个50美分的速度买到文件夹，” 她说。“现在他们几乎95美分一个文件夹。我们过去可以买到一箱箱的蜡笔，但我们再也不能在一元店批量买到了。他们说供应量低。现在，他们就像一个16计数的盒子差不多2美元。

Louis can no longer afford to give each of her 125 students a small box of crayons, along with a kit filled with rulers, index cards and highlighters. This year, she said, groups of four students will have to share these school supply kits. Sharing them means that her students can’t take the kits home to complete their schoolwork.

路易斯再也负担不起给她的每个125学生一小盒蜡笔，以及一个装满尺子，索引卡和荧光笔的工具包。她说，今年，四名学生将不得不分享这些学校用品包。分享它们意味着她的学生不能把工具包带回家完成学业。

Since her students are required to wear uniforms consisting of polo shirts and navy or khaki pants, Louis has also spent her own money to make sure her sixth graders, many of whom come from migrant families who can’t afford more than one uniform, have multiple sets of these clothing items.

由于她的学生必须穿由polo衫和海军或卡其色裤子组成的制服，路易斯还花了自己的钱确保她的六年级学生，其中许多人来自无法负担一件以上制服的移民家庭，拥有多套这些服装。

“The uniforms have gone up tremendously,” she said. “It used to cost $6 or $7 for a shirt. Now they’re between $9 to $12.”

“制服涨得很厉害，” 她说。“过去一件衬衫要花6美元或7美元。现在他们在9美元到12美元之间。

As classes resumed in Richmond, Richardson had already spent $200 on composition books and $400 on durable headphones for her students that wouldn’t break like the cheap ones she had in her classroom last school year. New whiteboards and dry erase markers were also on her list.

随着里士满的课程恢复，理查森已经为她的学生花了200美元购买作文书，花了400美元购买耐用的耳机，这些耳机不会像上学年在教室里的廉价耳机那样破裂。新的白板和干擦标记也在她的名单上。

A mother of four — the youngest of which is a college senior in need of her own supplies — Richardson said she’s fortunate enough to have children who pitch in to help her obtain learning materials.

四个孩子的母亲-其中最小的一个是需要自己用品的大学毕业生-理查森说，她很幸运有孩子帮助她获得学习材料。

“They always say, ‘Hey, Mom, I picked up some crayons for you,’ or ‘Mom, I picked up some pencils. Mom, you always said the kids never have scissors,’” Richardson said. “I’m so blessed that they do look out for me.”

“他们总是说，'嘿，妈妈，我给你拿了一些蜡笔'，或者 '妈妈，我拿了一些铅笔。妈妈，你总是说孩子们从来没有剪刀，”理查森说。“我很幸运，他们确实照顾我。

The Empty Backpack

空的背包

Reflecting on the start of her teaching career, which coincided with the turn of the 21st century, Richardson noticed a stark difference compared with today in how parents respond to the annual supply list her school sends out.

回想起她的教学生涯的开始，恰逢21世纪之交，理查森注意到与今天相比，父母对学校发出的年度供应清单的反应与今天有明显的不同。

“Earlier in my career, parents would send everything on the school supply list, and then they would send extras just in case,” she said. “If your tissue box supply ran low, you could reach out and they would replenish it.”

“在我职业生涯的早期，父母会把学校供应清单上的所有东西都寄出去，然后他们会派额外的东西以防万一，” 她说。“如果你的纸巾盒供应不足，你可以伸出手，他们会补充它。

Today, however, students will get free book bags from community events and bring nothing more than the bag and the supplies in it — usually one notebook, one pack of paper, one box of crayons — to school with them, Richardson said.

然而，今天，学生们将从社区活动中获得免费的书包，除了书包和里面的用品 -- 通常是一个笔记本，一包纸，一盒蜡笔 -- 和他们一起上学，理查森说。

“If we’re lucky, that’s what they have,” she said.

“如果我们幸运的话，那就是他们所拥有的，” 她说。

Out of 125 students, Louis said that she expects “maybe not even 20 percent” to show up to school with the supplies they need. That’s about 25 students.

在125名学生中，路易斯说她希望 “可能甚至不20%” 带着他们需要的用品出现在学校。大约有25名学生。

The COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point, ushering in mass job losses and supply chain disruptions that made it difficult for families to pay for essentials like rent and food, let alone school supplies. When students returned to class after remote learning, many stopped bringing the items on supply lists, teachers told The 19th.

新型冠状病毒肺炎大流行标志着一个转折点，导致大规模失业和供应链中断，使家庭难以支付房租和食物等必需品，更不用说学校用品了。老师告诉19日，当学生在远程学习后返回课堂时，许多人停止将物品放在供应清单上。

“So we tried to minimize what was on the list to be just the necessities,” Richardson said.

“所以我们试图尽量减少清单上的必需品，” 理查森说。

At her high-poverty school, most students show up with half the supplies on the back-to-school list, while about a quarter arrive completely empty-handed, she said. Some parents question why students need items like resealable plastic baggies, dry-erase markers or hand sanitizer, so they don’t purchase them. Others just haven’t been able to find items on the supply list, like the clear or mesh book bags required since July 2024 by Richmond Public Schools.

她说，在她的高贫困学校，大多数学生在返校名单上显示了一半的用品，而大约四分之一的学生完全空手而归。一些家长质疑为什么学生需要可重新密封的塑料袋，干擦标记或洗手液等物品，因此他们不购买。其他人只是无法在供应清单上找到物品，例如里士满公立学校自2024年7月以来所需的透明或网状书包。

To supplement her income and easily provide her students with the appropriate learning materials, Richardson has in the past taken on extra work — teaching summer school and working as a tutor and facilitator. Doing so, she said, gave her “extra money all year round to offset what I spend in my classroom.” A DonorsChoose survey revealed that nearly half of teachers report having a second job.

为了补充她的收入并轻松地为学生提供适当的学习材料，理查森过去曾从事额外的工作-教授暑期学校并担任导师和促进者。她说，这样做让她 “一年四季都有额外的钱来抵消我在教室里的花费”。DonorsChoose的一项调查显示，近一半的教师报告说有第二份工作。

“So, again, we’re just seeing this heightened level of teachers going above and beyond to be able to stay afloat during a time when things are getting really expensive,” Lyles said.

莱尔斯说: “所以，再一次，我们只是看到教师水平的提高，能够在事情变得非常昂贵的时候保持漂浮。”

Jodi Hanauer, an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teacher at Juniata Park Academy in Philadelphia, has previously picked up more work, which, in part, helped her buy school supplies.

费城朱尼亚塔公园学院的ESOL (其他语言的英语) 老师Jodi Hanauer以前从事过更多的工作，这在一定程度上帮助她购买了学习用品。

“I took on a part-time job just to pay the bills for several years,” the 22-year educator said. “I was an online ESOL teacher at night and during the weekends. I was teaching kids and adults English in countries like China, Japan and [places like] Hong Kong.”

这位22岁的教育工作者说: “我做了一份兼职工作，只是为了支付几年的账单。”“我在晚上和周末都是在线ESOL老师。我在中国、日本和香港等国家教孩子和成人英语。

The extra income she earned then marked the rare time buying school supplies, for which Hanauer pays between $500 to $1,000 annually, didn’t hurt financially. Like Louis, her school district provides her with a small stipend to cover learning materials, but the $200 doesn’t begin to compensate for the expenditures she makes working at a high-poverty school.

然后，她获得的额外收入标志着难得的购买学习用品的时间，Hanauer每年为此支付500美元至1,000美元，并没有造成经济损失。像路易斯一样，她的学区为她提供了少量津贴来支付学习材料，但200美元并没有开始补偿她在高贫困学校工作的支出。

Title I funds from the federal government help schools with economically disadvantaged students to cover supply costs. But Trump’s funding freeze in July held up Title I funding, delaying schools from getting their supply orders processed well before the new academic year.

联邦政府提供的资金帮助经济上处于不利地位的学生的学校支付供应费用。但是特朗普在7月的资金冻结阻碍了Title I的资金投入，从而延迟了学校在新学年之前很好地处理其供应订单。

“We haven’t been able to receive the order for this school year yet, so we’re hoping that will get cleared up soon,” Richardson said.

“我们还没有收到本学年的订单，所以我们希望很快就会得到解决，” 理查森说。

The Limits of Crowdfunding

众筹的局限性

DonorsChoose helps teachers like Richardson avoid financial collapse.

DonorsChoose帮助像理查森这样的教师避免财务崩溃。

She’s currently seeking donations for basic school supplies like pencils and ink for the classroom printer. She’d also like clay to help her students do classroom projects that develop their fine motor skills.

她目前正在为教室打印机的铅笔和墨水等基本学校用品寻求捐款。她还希望clay帮助她的学生进行课堂项目，以发展他们的精细运动技能。

But DonorsChoose, Richardson said, is not a permanent solution to the long-standing pattern of teachers covering school supplies.

但是，理查森说，DonorsChoose并不是解决长期存在的教师提供学校用品的永久解决方案。

“It takes a while for the projects to be funded and then the materials to be shipped to us,” she said. “If we need poster boards for our students to do a history project, and we need them in the classroom on Friday, I have to go out and purchase 18 poster boards to make sure that all of my students have one.”

“项目需要一段时间才能获得资金，然后将材料运送给我们，” 她说。“如果我们需要海报板为我们的学生做一个历史项目，我们需要他们在教室里星期五，我必须出去购买18海报板，以确保我所有的学生都有一个。

For Hanauer, DonorsChoose is no guarantee she will get all the school supplies she needs. She currently has a campaign to give prizes — which have previously included fidget spinners and high-end pens, pencils and erasers — to students who make positive behavioral choices.

对于Hanauer来说，DonorsChoose并不能保证她会得到所需的所有学习用品。她目前正在开展一项活动，向做出积极行为选择的学生颁发奖品-以前包括烦躁的旋转器和高端钢笔，铅笔和橡皮擦。

“Putting up a DonorsChoose project is like a dream,” she said. “You are dreaming of getting things, and it’s great if that happens, but if you absolutely need something now or in one week, then you’re going to have to come up with the money yourself.”

“开展捐赠者选择项目就像做梦一样，” 她说。“你梦想着得到一些东西，如果真的发生了，那就太好了，但如果你现在或一周内绝对需要一些东西，那么你将不得不自己拿出钱。”

For 12 years, Louis has used DonorsChoose to subsidize her classroom expenses. Since many of her students are English learners, it’s imperative that her classroom be a print-rich environment. But educational posters can cost $35 apiece, an expense that can quickly balloon. Crowdfunding on DonorsChoose has helped her cut down on these costs. She’s also used the site to fund field trips. She’s currently crowdfunding for a file cabinet and poster machine ink that can cost up to $500.

12年来，路易斯一直使用DonorsChoose来补贴她的课堂费用。由于她的许多学生都是英语学习者，因此她的教室必须是一个印刷丰富的环境。但是，教育海报的价格可能为每张35美元，这笔费用很快就会膨胀。DonorsChoose的众筹帮助她降低了这些成本。她还利用该网站资助实地考察。她目前正在众筹一个文件柜和海报机墨水，价格可能高达500美元。

Although teachers make countless sacrifices to kick off the school year and maintain their classrooms as the months unfold, Louis knows that the public is largely unaware of how much educators personally contribute to school supply lists. Every item in a classroom, she said, has been designed with one goal in mind: facilitating student learning.

尽管随着时间的发展，教师们做出了无数的牺牲来启动学年并维护教室，但路易斯知道，公众在很大程度上并不知道教育工作者个人为学校供应清单做出了多少贡献。她说，教室里的每个项目都设计了一个目标: 促进学生学习。

“So, please be gentle with teachers,” she asked, urging families to provide any learning materials they’re capable of buying. Teachers who pour money into their classrooms, she said, do so “out of the kindness of our heart, because we really enjoy what we do.”

“所以，请对老师温柔点，” 她问道，并敦促家庭提供他们能够购买的任何学习材料。她说，把钱投入教室的老师这样做是 “出于我们内心的善意，因为我们真的很喜欢我们所做的事情。