National Post, August 31, 2002

More teachers foot bill for class materials

Board budget cuts mean some students denied basic supplies

By Mary Vallis

Faced with ongoing cuts to education, Canadian teachers are spending their own money and scouring garage sales to provide basic necessities for their students.

Even with the help of funds raised by parents and students who turn up with backpacks full of supplies, teachers are spending hundreds of dollars on pencils, binders and class sets of books.

According to a recent survey conducted for the Canadian Teachers' Federation, 79% of teachers use their own funds to buy school books.

Teachers in British Columbia spent the most $1,000 each while those in Prince Edward Island spent $282 a year. The average teacher spends $593 on learning materials annually.

Teachers are under pressure to keep their classes functioning despite dwindling school budgets, said Kimberly Burstall, a Grade 6 teacher who has been teaching in Halifax for 21 years. "I don't think it's reasonable that for us to be able to do our jobs that we have to spend money from our own pockets," she said. "It's like looking at a health-care worker and thinking that they might provide additional Band-Aids or syringes to compensate for the lack of things that aren't available in storerooms?"

Ms. Burstall spends summers stocking up on pencils, loose-leaf paper and styrofoam balls for science models because her class room budget - which this year consists of $100 donated by the parental advisory board does not meet her needs. She has even covered students' bus fare on class trips in the past.

A teacher in British Columbia just spent $150 on a class set of social studies books at Chapters. Another young teacher in Toronto once bought all of her students binders and pencils be cause she works in an under privileged area.

"Everything is being cut all the time, but it's not like the kids' needs are any less," said Wendy Banhan, who teaches Grade 8 at Brookview Middle School.

"Because teachers are the way they are, they end up buying more because they don't want their kids to suffer for it."

One first-year teacher in the Toronto area, who asked not to be identified, has already spent hundreds of dollars because her Grade 1 classroom was completely bare: Most of the supplies it once held were her predecessor's personal possessions.

"If it wasn't for the dollar store, I'd be dead," she said. "I walked into a classroom that looked like a hospital room. It was totally barren; there was nothing on the walls, not even a piece of tape. I even had to buy learning visuals like ABCs."

The school spent her $250 classroom budget pre-ordering supplies before she was hired, but the order did not contain enough packages of crayons to give each student an individual set. The teacher is also keeping her eyes open for garage sales because the classroom does not contain any educational games.

The situation has prompted teachers in British Columbia to slap stickers reading "Paid for by a Teacher" on their classroom supplies.

Parents are often frustrated by the long lists of back-to-school supplies they are asked to provide for their children, but not many realize teachers make their own substantial contributions, said Carol Johns, president of the B.C. Primary Teachers Association.

"The system can't work without what teachers put in as resources from their own pockets," she said from Cranbrook, B.C.

Rosanne Sylvestre, a 30-year veteran now teaching grade school in rural Manitoba, said teachers should be able to claim their school expenses in their income taxes.

"School boards do the best they can with what they have, she said. "If you're going to buy [supplies], that's you're prerogative, but at least you should be able to put that against your in come tax. It's going to the public good."