Tax break helps educators providing school supplies

They can be spotted in local stores around the start of every school year, pushing carts piled high with stickers, bookmarks and popsicle sticks.

What they don't have are requisition forms from school districts.

Each year, local teachers spend thousands of dollars out of their own pockets, stocking their classrooms with everyday supplies schools can't afford to buy for them.

For the second year, the federal government is offering a tax deduction to help offset some of those costs. Educators who work at least 900 hours during the school year as a teacher, counselor, principal or aide can deduct as much as $250 from their gross income on their 2003 taxes.

But they only have until Dec. 31 to get in on the deduction. That's when the program, born in 2002 as part of the Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act, expires. The date looms as local school districts face budget shortfalls due to state funding troubles.

Denise McDowell, a teacher at North Elementary in Jackson who took advantage of the tax break last year, said she spends between $400 and $500 every year on hands-on activities and rewards for her second-grade classroom.

"It's an investment. I don't mind spending the money, as long as the students are learning," she said.

The same is true for Janet Brase, a fourth-grade teacher at Blanchard Elementary in Cape Girardeau who spends around $2,000 a year for hands-on activities for her students.

Brase, along with the other teachers at Blanchard, receives $100 a year for office supplies like staples and paper clips.

But things such as construction paper and paint come out of her own budget. Throughout the year, she'll also buy watermelons for a seed-spitting contest she incorporates into a lesson about measuring distance, Cheez-it crackers to measure area and perimeter, hangers for mobiles and supplies to make volcanos and hold a fossil dig.

"You almost have to so kids will understand the concepts," Brase said. "If they just read something or if I just tell them, they might not get it. But if they can actually touch stuff, they understand."

Brase took advantage of the tax reduction last year, and plans to do so again this year.

Local teachers say it's bad timing on the federal government's part to discontinue the program as school districts face potential cuts in state funding.

The Jackson School District, where McDowell teaches, decreased funding for classroom supplies and field trips by as much as 10 percent this year in anticipation of a $1.4 million cut in state aid.

Instead of the $289,739 spent last year on supplies, only $245,351 was budgeted for 2003-04. Officials there say they try to fulfill as many supply requests as possible, but the cuts were necessary to keep fund balances above state requirements.

"There's only so much money to go around, so we have to prioritize," said assistant superintendent Jim Welker.

While not facing the same cuts in state funding, private and parochial school teachers also open their pocketbooks for classroom purchases.

Elizabeth Babchak, a second-grade teacher and interim principal at Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau, said she spends around $300 a year on things such as apples to correspond with her lessons on Johnny Appleseed.

"I do it because I want to make learning as interesting as I can," she said. "I know I'm not the only teacher doing this."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128