Are we really appreciating our teachers?

Six weeks ago, I found myself driving down the 105 in Los Angeles, making my way from LAX towards Compton. I had never been to Compton before, nor did I know what to expect from the students and teachers I was planning to meet with from Laurel Street Elementary School. All I knew at this point was that they, like so many schools across California, needed help.

Laurel Street Elementary is in one of the neediest districts in Los Angeles – over 79% of its students are eligible for free lunches, 30% higher than the California state average. And while these statistics are indicative of an array of complex challenges that these students face, both in their classrooms and at home, one of the most glaring is also one of the most fixable: their lack of school supplies.

{mosads}In preparation for this trip, I spoke with Dr. Jacqueline Sanderlin – from the Office of Special Programs in the Compton Unified School District – in order to learn more about the school community. What I heard was astonishing, but based on my work over the past two years, unfortunately not surprising. She told me that the lack of school supplies is not attributable to any one cause, but that it has a significant impact on both the psyche and ability of almost every student in the district – most notably, those in grades K-5. And from my experience dealing with this issue, I know that, more often than not teachers, who earn an average starting salary of $30,377, are making up the difference.

This dynamic is not unique to Compton, nor is it endemic to high-need areas. Each year in this country, individual teachers spend an average of $485 of their own money – that’s $1.6 billion in aggregate nationally – on classroom supplies like pencils, erasers, markers and glue. It’s no wonder that 1 in every 12 US teachers leave the profession every year. The New York Times recently reported that in the current school year, California districts alone had to fill 21,500 teacher positions while the state is issuing fewer than 15,000 new teaching credentials a year. That is quite a discrepancy.

In 2012, California Governor Jerry Brown passed a tax measure intended to increase funding for public schools – much of which has been used to combat the onslaught of teacher shortages. But clearly, not enough has been allocated on the district level to keep those teachers in the classroom. Elsa Meza, a first grade teacher I met with at Laurel Street, told me that she hasn’t seen any noticeable difference in her or her colleagues classrooms, and that buying school supplies to fill the annual void is almost a rite of passage for the teachers at Laurel Street.

There must be a better way. As the national education debate focuses on common core and college tuition, the inequality and inadequacy of school supplies is a fundamental and pervasive problem that has gone largely ignored by policy and lawmakers. So how do we fix this?

Increasing the financial commitment of almost every district in the country is no small feat. It will take a combination of public and private investment to make sure that our teachers, who have fully committed themselves to our most vulnerable population, do not have to shoulder this burden. But our first priority is making sure these problems come to light.

The reactions I received from the students and teachers alike at Laurel Street Elementary has further affirmed my dedication to this cause and my belief that there is still more we can and should do. I intend to leverage whatever influence I have to call on federal, state and local officials to address education funding disparity and protect and increase educator expense tax deductions. I invite you to join me.

Ido Leffler is the co-founder and CEO of Yoobi and the star of the just-launched television show Quit Your Day Job on Oxygen.