Posted on 06/01/2018 9:59:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
An honest teacher-pay debate requires careful attention to the facts.
This spring’s teacher walkouts have spurred renewed attention to the question of teacher pay. The topic is a serious one, warranting the extensive reportage it’s received. At times, however, the media’s progressive sympathies, the allure of hard-luck tales, and concerted PR by teachers’ unions have yielded some questionable coverage. A recent case has been the spate of stories suggesting that teachers routinely reach into their own pockets to spend extraordinary sums on classroom materials.
“There is no other job I know of where the workers subsidize what should be a cost borne by an employer as a necessary ingredient of the job,” American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has thundered. Numerous recent stories have echoed her sentiment, repeatedly stating that the average teacher spends nearly $500 a year, unreimbursed, on school supplies. “The average teacher spends $479 a year on classroom supplies, national data show,” read a typical headline in Education Week. The Washington Post reported the same finding, in a story headlined “Teachers shelling out nearly $500 a year on school supplies, report finds.” A Time story explained, “Nearly all public school teachers report digging into their pockets to pay for school supplies, spending nearly $480 a year.”
Such claims make for attention-grabbing headlines. But, as with some of the other assertions made in the teacher-pay debate, they can be misleading. It’s less that the coverage is “wrong” than that it’s credulous and sometimes deceptive. So, let’s take a moment to clear things up.
The data in question are drawn from the 2015–16 National Teacher and Principal Survey, a nationally representative study of teachers and principals in public schools, conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Using the survey results, NCES calculated average teacher spending for the 94 percent of teachers who said that they spent money out of pocket — excluding the 6 percent of teachers who did not report such spending, though the coverage frequently skips past that qualifier. (Including those other teachers lowers the average by about $30 a head.)
In reporting the “average” figure, news outlets have made the odd choice to focus on mean spending rather than the more typical median figure. There’s a reason most such data are reported in terms of medians (e.g., “median household income”). The median, after all, is the figure midway between the top and bottom of a distribution, meaning it represents the middle of the pack. A mean, on the other hand, can be dramatically moved by a few outliers. Including Warren Buffet or Bill Gates in a sample of average household income would make the typical household look much wealthier than it really is; similarly, a small number of teachers claiming big outlays can move the mean a lot. Indeed, NCES says that just one in five teachers reported spending more than $500, and the median teacher reported spending $297 — or about 60 percent of the widely quoted $479 figure.
Even these qualifications elide the real concern, however, which is the trouble with placing too much weight on a self-reported figure like this one. Journalists have generally ignored the problem inherent in asking respondents about how much they claim to do a good or noble thing. Self-reporting in such cases is highly susceptible to what social scientists term “social-desirability bias”: the tendency of respondents to say things that cast them (consciously or subconsciously) in a more favorable light. Studies show, for instance, that respondents substantially overestimate the number of days per week that they exercise, claim to watch the news three times as much as they actually do, and dramatically over-report their weekly worship-service attendance.
Now, let’s be clear. We are not suggesting that teachers are lying about their spending. But we are suggesting that, when teachers filled out the survey, precious few probably took the time to comb through twelve months’ worth of receipts and credit-card statements. Most of them probably guesstimated, and it’s safe to assume that their guesstimates tended to be on the high side.
We have no desire to diminish the real sacrifices many educators make, much less to deny that some teachers do indeed dig deep into their own pockets on behalf of their students. Spending even $100 or $200 per year out of pocket, especially for a teacher making $45,000 per year, is a big deal, and we don’t mean to suggest otherwise. But serious conversations about teacher pay should be informed by accurate data and careful analysis. Public deliberations about how much teachers should be paid, and whether raises ought to be funded by new taxes or cuts to other programs, are best served by reporting that meets that standard.
— Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. R.J Martin is a research assistant at AEI.
Are you charging your boss while posting?
My kids Public School teachers never shelled out a damn thing, and constantly demanded that we buy stuff to donate to the classroom
I give to charities. Not quite enough to deduct it from my taxes. I guess it is nice of me, but it is my decision and no one feels sorry for me. Job related? That is nice. Continuing education requirements exist for a lot of jobs - out of pocket, but mandatory. In my own area, I’ve shelled out $250 for my CE this year. My wife is paying $8000 this year to certify for a certain medical area - out of pocket, and she won’t make much more once certified.
It is life. Something a lot of teachers are not very well acquainted with...
“They give up THOUSANDS of dollars to do a job that pays so very little in comparison to other professional jobs.”
And why is that? Hmmm? BECAUSE THEY WANT TO TEACH AND SO DO A LOT OF OTHERS!
And because “teaching” doesn’t require a very challenging curriculum. When teachers need the academic qualifications of electrical engineers, they’ll be paid more.
IT IS A 9 MONTH Position plus numerous days off.
They "subsidize" counterproductive union leaders.
They "subsidize" their Dem puppet masters.
They "subsidize" non-value added social indoctrination curricula.
They also have one of the best retirement packages around.
Sounds just like what I’m hearing.
I imagine most of this money isn’t spent on American kids. More than likely, these supplies are probably purchased for illegal immigrant kids whose parents cannot purchase school supplies with their food stamp cards.
I spend roughly $2-3000 a year on suits/work attire, another couple thousand on an extra phone, dry cleaning, and fast reliable internet, and then throw in other stuff I dont get reimbursed for and it is probably $5000 a year.
Lots of people WANT to teach. Not me. I tried it and it felt like babysitting, not teaching. But it has some perks to go with the bad things, and on balance, a lot of people still want to teach.
If they would start enforcing discipline in schools - writing as someone who went to school in the 60s - I’d teach.
..mine did
What a joke. Mechanics but their own tools. Nurses buy their own uniforms including stethoscopes and shoes and scissors and flash lights
Teachers unions are anathema
..my wife, rather...
I spend that much maintaining a uniform. Write it off on taxes.
STFU Randi! Where do all of the dues go? We all know that answer. Your union basically bankrupts school districts by striking so much until the taxpayers are bled dry. Say $12,000 per student is spent. How much actually goes to the students needs? Teaching has no use for unions anymore. Government run schools are a racket.
My goodness! Teachers starting salary in this low income area is high 20s-low 30s. My daughter who has been in education for 40 plus years spends a lot but never mentions it. She has refused to join the union for all those years and has received abuse from other unionized teachers. Right now,she is a Literary Specialist and if she finds a reading book for early grades that she feels is exceptional, she doesn’t buy just one, she buys 6-8 so she can send them home with students, hoping parents will take an interest in helping their children read.
She frequents yard sales to pick up inexpensive slippers (for children who forget shoes in the winter), underwear and slacks (for accidents) and mittens, mittens mittens (she has many relatives knitting mittens all winter for her as she doesn’t ask a child to return mittens as chances are he-she doesn’t have any mittens of their own.)
I feel that the majority of teachers are dedicated and like my daughter aren’t looking for accolades-just trying to make their job easier and more gratifying. It is the greedy, unionized ones working solely for the pay that make all teachers look bad.
By the way, after 40 plus years, obtaining her masters and becoming a Literary Specialist, her salary is low 50s , well shy of 6 figures, but she doesn’t complain, loves her job and realizes she could earn more in a different area. How wonderful it is to work at a job you really love in an area of our country you love!!
My neifhbor’s a mechanic. His tools come off the top of taxes as a business related expense. 100% writeoff.
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