November is here, which means that most of the standard issue back-to-school supplies are running low. The tissues are running out, the pencil boxes you were given by the front office are long gone, that Ziploc bag of 10 Bandaids got used up in the first week, the sticky tape was gone by your second bulletin board, the stapler is jammed, the copier is having a complete meltdown and the bathroom pass looks like it’s been through a warzone.
In many schools, these supplies are not replaceable. You can’t simply walk into the main office and grab a new stapler. There isn’t one. In some schools, teachers are not even permitted to grab a ream of paper to refill the printer tray.
And yet, no child goes without a pencil, and no bulletin board is left bare. Educators always step up. They dig into their own pockets to make sure that New Jersey’s students have what they need to learn. But this isn’t sustainable and it isn’t fair.
Against the backdrop of a serious school funding crisis, school supply shortages are more than inconveniences; they are symptoms of a broader miscalculation about what it costs to fund schools and why we should do so in the first place.
Getting real with the numbers
Anyone who has worked with children knows that you always need extra supplies. Kindergarteners use more glue than they should, high schoolers lose more Chromebook chargers than they should and middle schoolers inevitably stick pencils into the sharpener backwards, just to see what happens.
Allocating $100 to $200 per teacher—and in some districts, $0 per teacher—for necessary supplies is woefully inadequate, particularly given that inflation, tariffs and increased shipping costs have caused school supply prices to rise by almost 8%.
Of course, parents and families also have an obligation to send their children to school stocked with supplies. However, there are families who forget or those who can’t afford certain items. Regardless of the reason for the missing items, it is the educators who make sure the students can continue learning by spending their own hard-earned money.
A small ask
One solution for lessening the school supply burden on educators would be to significantly increase the Educator Expense standard tax deduction.
The deduction is currently set at $350 for the 2026 tax year. But when a basic electric pencil sharpener from Really Good Stuff (a commonly approved discount vendor) costs $69.99, $350 is nowhere near enough. Substantially increasing the standard deduction is a small ask for a profession whose employees make 26% less than similarly qualified professionals (nationally).
Educators should note that beginning in 2026, they may claim “above the line” itemized expenses for educational supplies in excess of the standard $350. But itemization fails to solve the source of the problem and yet again offloads responsibility onto educators.
The miscalculation
In 2026, we are faced with a miscalculation of what it takes to run a quality public education system, not to mention a widespread misunderstanding of the services that schools provide to society.
The larger, inconvenient truth of the school supply dilemma is that the shortages and consequent offloading of responsibility to educators are merely bellwethers of a much more insidious problem.
The funding crisis facing our public schools is part of a broader pattern of systematic devaluation of public institutions. Right-wing extremists have been driving this trend and using public schools as scapegoats for everything from declining attention spans to shifting cultural values. They have discredited public schools and sewn distrust among parents. They have intentionally and strategically forced hot-button social issues into schools, driving a wedge between families and educators.
In terms of funding, they have supported the Trump administration’s slashing of federal education funds, have run on unrealistic anti-tax-raising platforms and have advocated for voucher programs that would strip the system of any semblance of solvency.
Where, then, do they think the money for schools will come from? Perhaps the better question is if they ask themselves this at all.