Teacher spending goes toward classroom essentials.

A while back, we told you about a young man who stood in line at Target on a Saturday morning waiting to pay for his purchase of 26 brightly colored new pencil boxes. His purchase totaled just shy of $30, a fraction of the “hundreds and hundreds” he will spend out of his own pocket for the pupils in his classroom.

Not much has changed since that day in 2021. Teachers are still spending money out of their own pockets, and more than ever.

In fact, the typical teacher spent an average of $820.14 out of pocket on school supplies in 2022 — the largest amount ever, according to MyElearningWorld.com.

With Teacher Appreciation Week and Tax Day on the horizon, we thought our readers would be interested in a new study showing that teachers spend three times more than they’re able to deduct.

Important data points:

  • In all, teachers across the US spent an estimated $3 billion on essential items to help their students succeed, like pencils, paper, cleaning supplies, books, software, and other materials.
  • The educator expense deduction was enacted just over 20 years ago in 2002, giving teachers the ability to deduct up to $250 of out-of-pocket classroom expenses when filing their federal tax returns.
  • For the 2022 tax year being filed now, the maximum deduction has only increased ever so slightly to just $300.
  • If the maximum educator expense education had kept pace with inflation since its passing in 2002, teachers would be able to deduct over $400 in expenses, but that’s not the case.

Here’s the full link to the study: https://myelearningworld.com/teacher-tax-report-2023/

Image Sources

  • 2023 Teacher Spending: My eLearning World