There's something missing from this. Teachers often buy classroom supplies themselves, instead of the district providing them. Yeah, they only spend about $47

There's something missing from this. Teachers often buy classroom supplies themselves, instead of the district providing them. Yeah, they only spend about $479 on average [1], but it's still a pretty unique situation. That, I think, is where the sense (among teachers) of being underpaid comes from: teachers aren't getting institutional support. That's something that the National Affairs article mentions with regards to discipline, but it's true in other ways as well. When you toss in the fact that a great deal of educational achievement happens outside of the classroom-- as the article mentions-- but teachers are expected to make up for that gap, often without the community support they would need. Saying that "I'm not paid enough to deal with this shit" doesn't seem that out of line to me. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/teachers-school-supplies.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/teachers-school-suppli...