Teachers, Need Cash Now? Finance Classroom Supplies Here

There is a colloquial saying that teaching is the only profession where you steal supplies from home and bring them to work.  And while this is quite commonly true, what is more likely is that teachers often use their personal money to buy necessary supplies for their classrooms, for example see here, here, here, here, here, and here.  In fact, teachers spend anywhere from $1.3 Billion to $3.5 Billion in out-of-pocket on classroom materials per year.

The other day I received this check (loan offer) in the mail (pictured below).  If you read it closely, as I did, the check is a real check than can be cashed immediately for the purpose of purchasing supplies for my classroom (or “take a vacation” or “buy new clothes”…something that many teachers on their salaries have difficulty affording).  But, it is obvious that the intended use of the loan is for classroom supplies.  Being that the check is a loan, it comes with a hefty APR of 28.77%, which is what many credit cards charge after defaulting on payments.  It also fits the financial definition of loan sharking.  Not to mention, given the payback schedule of 10 months, the Effective Annual Rate is actually 32.88%.  Thus, according to the document, once I cash the check totaling $1,205.40, I would owe $1,370 to be paid over 10 months time.  That is, during the course of my annual contract, I would pay $137.00 per month for the entire school year.

And, as pointed out above, with the vast amount of personal money being spent on classroom supplies, there apparently is a huge market to cash in (pun intended) on teachers with these types of loans.  And while all of the teachers using their own money would not necessarily cash a loan check like this one (perhaps some will use their own money and a loan check), the amount of personal money teachers spend represents potentially $177.5 million to $477.9 million in loan profits under the same loan parameters on the estimated range of $1.3 – 3.5 billion in personal spending.

So, not only does this type of practice ensure that teachers have even more opportunity to use their own money for supplies, it is an attempt to cash in and make a profit off of those teachers while charging teachers (at an Effective Annual Rate of 32.88%) to use their own money.  While we as a society have continued to overlook the realities that our nation’s schools face – namely the realities of those teachers on the front lines who bring their personal lives and money into the equation – banks have joined ranks with those seeking to get even more out of our teachers. 

By: T. Jameson Brewer

War on Teachers?

Cross-posted from JDS Social Issues:

From my inbox almost two months ago:

So, where did this war on teachers, and other public employees come from? I certainly didn't see that coming.

A former colleague (a faculty member in a humanities department) was responding directly to word that Pennsylvania was cutting P-12 funding and slashing state support for public higher education. But her consciousness was framed by events in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

So I have been paying attention to the news in a new way. Is my colleague right? Is there a “war on teachers”? I think she may right that there is a “war” going on but I’m having a little more difficulty determining just what it is we are fighting about and fighting for. Are teachers the target? Or are teachers collateral damage in a larger struggle –because teachers (and their students) don’t fight back and because everybody feels entitled to an “expert” opinion about educational matters generally?

I hope to think more about this over the summer and invite any readers to join in with news items, anecdotes and analyses that help us all figure out where we want to stand in what is clearly a struggle for the social, economic, political and educational terrain within our own communities and our nation.

Here are a couple for starters:

· Randy Turner, commenting on the Huffington Post about new education legislation in Missouri, asks whether public school teachers are an “endangered species”? His question is motivated by regulatory proposals that seem to suggest that all teachers are lazy perverts.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-turner/public-school-teachers-ar_b_861407.html

· Paul Mucci, a fifth grade NBPTS certified teacher, asks

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/may/16/paul-mucci-since-when-did-teachers-become-the/

“since when did teachers become the bad guys?” Mucci is in Florida where education is rapidly being “reformed” on the backs of teachers: “elimination of teacher tenure, teacher pay based on student performance, increasing teacher contributions to the Florida Retirement System, raising the retirement age/years of service, increasing student testing and reducing the number of "core" classes to name a few.”

He conveys his demoralization clearly:

“More important, gone is the respect teachers once had. The steady erosion of respect is palpable in parent conferences, in line at the grocery store and in politicians' statements in the media.

As one legislator said to me, ‘The public deserves accountability they deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent.’ In one respect, he is right, but what good are numbers and test results if we lose our integrity, our compassion, our humanity along the way?”

Mucci notes that it is ironic that the rhetoric is all about “good teachers” but in the process they are destroying any chance of respect [for teachers].

· Bill Haslam, Governor of my new home state of Tennessee apparently hasn’t met any Paul Mucci type teachers. Last week he rejected the Tennessee Education Association’s claim that “teacher morale is flagging,” despite passing measures that limit collective bargaining and proposing others that would end any licensure for educational professionals. (More on events in Tennessee in the days to come.)

http://www.dnj.com/article/20110527/NEWS01/110526017/Haslam-rejects-claims-teacher-morale-flagging

As someone who spends a fair amount of time cultivating partnerships with public schools so that we can jointly (university/school) provide substantive and challenging but guided practical experience for teacher candidates, my sense is that teacher morale is fragile at best. Neither principals nor teachers – no matter how accomplished --generally feel free to take on novice teacher candidates. Even when they can identify the value of teaching collaboratively with a young person with energy and ideas, they are hesitant, even fearful, about jeopardizing their compensation and even their jobs (based largely on student test scores). Everybody is looking over both shoulders at once.

What do these snippets suggest?

Whether or not there is a war on teachers, teachers are feeling under siege. And the march of legislation that targets the teaching profession is undeniable. But the point of the legislation is harder to tease out. Limiting collective bargaining might be a cost-cutting measure. It might be an undercut-the-unions measure (my favorite theory with thanks to Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow). The undercut-the-unions theory is supported by proposals in Tennessee to get rid of teacher licensure all together. Put this together with the appointment of a new Commissioner of Education with a Teach for America and charter school background and it does appear that the war is not on “teachers” per se but on the public school “establishment” (whatever that is).

The point then is an utterly free market for education? (Odd that we would seek a free market for the development of human capital when we have no such truly free market for any other commodity – oil subsidies, farm subsidies, interstate highway systems anyone?)

But this is a kaleidoscopic phenomenon, I think, and this particular ideological interpretation is just today’s turn of the barrel. What does it look like to you? What will it look like tomorrow?