In Miami-Dade, educators say low pay and shrinking budgets are forcing them to self-fund classroom essentials.
Two months into the school year, Tye Haynes has already spent over $600 of his personal money on school supplies for his students at Booker T. Washington Senior High School in Overtown.
“I need paper, I need ink, I need tissues, I need napkins. … It’s just a lot of little things that you consistently always need to buy all the time,” he said. “So over time, it becomes very costly.”
Haynes, who teaches World History and AP Human Geography, expects to spend even more as the year goes on. Every year, he said, he spends over $1,000 out of pocket on school supplies.
His case is far from isolated. During the 2024-25 school year, K-12 teachers in Florida spent an average of $904 out of pocket on school supplies for their students, slightly more than the national average of $895. That’s according to a survey by the nonprofit organization AdoptAClassroom.org, which helps teachers raise money for school supplies through crowdfunding.
“That number is not surprising at all,” said Antonio White, president of United Teachers of Dade, the union representing Miami-Dade teachers. “We live in one of the highest [cost of living] states in the country. We are at the bottom of the pay scale … and basically teachers do what’s necessary to have their classroom prepared for children to enter.”
AdoptAClassroom.org surveyed 3,700 teachers across the country in the spring of 2025 through an online questionnaire. The survey results were released in June in what marks the sixth report released by the organization since 2015.
The report showed that the amount spent by teachers on school supplies in a school year has increased by 49% since 2015. Ryan Jordan, chief executive officer of AdoptAClassroom.org, pointed the finger at inflation driving up the costs of materials and at cuts in education funding.
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