In my state, our “generous” tax cuts (the ones that ensure I’ll never be paid adequately for the job I do) mean that school districts don’t have enough money for classroom supplies. In fact, my state doesn’t even fund the purchase of high school text books. School districts have to pull this off themselves, and where there’s a limited tax base, families pay textbook and supply fees amounting to anywhere from $50 to $200 a year so that their kids can have books. More often students pay these fees and still have to share a classroom set of books, without one of their own to take home. Families eligible for free lunch don’t pay the fees, so the most challenging burdens fall on lower middle income families, and this in a state whose constitution guarantees free public education. Just now, the books in my English classroom are older than my students (10th graders).

Imagine a high school art department in a school with 700 students and two art teachers getting by on a $200/year art budget.

Teachers and families have a choice, in this era of strangled funding for education, spend money or go without. For a conscientious classroom teacher, having the right materials means being able to do the job. It means introducing creativity and variety into lessons that engage students. If I stopped spending money on materials and breaking copyright laws at the photocopier, I’d transform my classroom into a travesty of the education my students need. We teachers perpetuate an injustice against ourselves and our families precisely because we can’t bear to give the public just the education it is willing to pay for. We probably also do it because we are regularly observed and evaluated on the quality of the lessons we teach. The kinds of lessons that reflect best practice indeed require materials (and a lot of work).