Teachers in NYC are given a small stipend of money most years. Last time I checked (I am, thank you G-d, RETIRED for 18 months now, away from the roiling cesspool of fraud and corruption the NYC school system has become.), it was $250 per year, but many years it is far less. This stipend is called Teachers' Choice. Many schools in dire financial straits demand that their teachers give over their Teachers' Choice money to buy new copy machines and such. Many schools in dire financial straits cannot afford to supply copy paper and so teachers have to spend a lot of that money on paper and other basic supplies. That money is supposed to be for "extras" to enhance learning, not basic classroom supplies. And it is a drop in the bucket for how much teachers actually have to spend in order to teach their classes the way they should be taught. A couple of months before the end of the school year, teachers must submit their receipts for how the money was spent and fill out a form explaining the expenditures.
First off, end of the year isn’t good enough. It needs to be done within 2-3 weeks. Run it like a business. And then again a stipend? No, they need to be freakin’ expenses, the teachers need to graduate to the real world. But then again when has the NYC Public schools ever been on planet earth.
Hell, just give a student extra credit for managing the expense account. Some teacher’s aren’t too swift.