How much do teachers pay for school supplies?: U.S. teachers spend on average $459 of their own money on classroom supplies
Note: The dollar values represent average unreimbursed spending across all K–12 public noncharter school teachers and include teachers who reported zero unreimbursed spending for school supplies. Data are 2011–2012 Schools and Staffing Survey microdata from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Spending data are inflation-adjusted from 2011 dollars to 2018 dollars using the CPI-U-RS.
Source: Adapted from Figure A in Emma García, "It’s the Beginning of the School Year and Teachers Are Once Again Opening Up Their Wallets to Buy School Supplies," Working Economics (Economic Policy Institute blog), August 22, 2019.