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Brian Lehrer: For our last 15 minutes today, we're going to open the phones for teachers and parents on the experience of back-to-school shopping in this year of high inflation. 212-433-WNYC. We know this is a school holiday in a lot of places, so teachers are out there listening, which you might not be tomorrow. We're doing this today for that reason. With inflation so high, how much more have you spent so far this year on the things you need for your classroom, if you're a teacher, that you have to spend out of your own pocket for, or if you're a parent that your child needs for school?

School supplies, including not just notebooks and pens and stuff like that, but also clothing and book bags or any other necessity or things they really, really want? 212-433-WNYC on back to school Inflation. 212-433-9692 or tweet @BrianLehrer. Teachers, this is primarily for you because we know many of you often have to spend your own money on certain school supplies. There was even a story on the news site Insider about a kindergarten teacher who so far has spent $2,000 on supplies between her own money and donations.

In a video, the teacher shows off a barren classroom and reading from her caption, it says, "No shelves for a classroom library, no cabinets, no rug, no leftover supplies or books. How much of my own money am I expected to spend?" Then there's a link to our Amazon wishlist for people to make donations. Maybe that's an extreme example, but does that sound like you teachers to any degree?

Have you had to crowdfund or just what are you spending out of pocket for what? For your own classroom? Has inflation shot it up this year to any degree? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We would also like to invite parents and even students if you're off and listening right now, if you're back to school shopping has cost you more this year. Parents, any items in particular that you have found to be surprisingly expensive? We'll take your calls at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. All right. Teachers call in and tell us what school supplies you have to supply yourself for your classroom. Parents call in as well and talk about inflation and back-to-school supplies this year. Back-to-school supplies broadly defined not only like pens and notebooks but maybe the electronics your kids wanted or whatever. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer and William in the South Bronx. You're on WNYC. Hi, William. Thanks for calling in.

William: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me on. I've been teaching in the South Bronx for 18 years. Currently also serve as the district rep for the UFT there and I'm doing my doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania. One of the things that I've seen through my dissertation work is that as more and more teachers, they always step up and they're buying snacks and they're buying supplies and everything from pencils to paper.

When a kid comes in and doesn't have shoes, they'll go and buy shoes for that child that just doesn't have them or reach out. As a result, it's really digging into that burnout that teachers are feeling especially as we come through and that's one of the reasons this idea of de-Professionalism in that teachers are here to provide charity as opposed to de-Professionals as to why teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

Brian Lehrer: I'll let you continue in a minute, but you brought up a whole other category that I even mentioned in the talk-up and that is teachers of kids in poverty buying some basic things for the children out of the teacher's pocket not just for the classroom as a whole, but for individual kids. right?

William: Absolutely. If you have a kid that's coming in that doesn't have school uniforms or isn't able to afford things, you purchase those things. You put food in the kids' backpack, so they have food for the weekends. It's just something that teachers often don't think about but cost wise can mean that your own children go without something special or you don't do something and it builds up over time.

When you really look at it part of the reason is sexism in our country. When you look at some of the historical contexts in the last 30 years even though we've required more education and better certification for our professionals because it's a female-dominated profession, a lot of times people say their husbands will fund the rest of that through his job and this is the side job. That's become in the last 30 years, part of the historical perspective of teaching and why teaching salary tends to stay low and why the expectation that this is the extra income as opposed to the main income for a family as we go forward.

Brian Lehrer: Let me ask you as somebody who's active in the union, you said the teacher's union, how does this come up or does it come up as a matter of collective bargaining with a city when teachers have to spend out of pocket for their classrooms?

William: It comes up a lot, especially when we work with city council. When we talk about Teacher's Choice funding. It's something that we have as part of our contract with the city that says there should be all the supplies in a classroom. In order to get that to happen, it requires teachers to file the grievances, to file the complaints, whereas administrators make it very uncomfortable to do that and as a result, sometimes it's just more comfortable even though the city has an obligation to provide all of these things, these basic supplies for all the students.

When the city doesn't live up to its obligation under the contract, the teachers are just more comfortable to purchase it and make that sacrifice and we don't do things like exit interviews like you would do in a corporate setting and so no one ever goes back and collects that data when people end up exiting the system.

Brian Lehrer: That's really interesting. Ties into the retention issue for sure. Thank you for your call. Listener tweets, "I'm a public school teacher, I've spent $300 so far on school supplies." Another listener asked, "Does this include money spent on my basketball team?" The answer is definitely yes, though I didn't include that. Coaches, are you out there? Do you have to buy basketballs or any other supplies for your basketball team or whatever team? Michael and Washington hi too, you're on WNYC. Hi, Michael.

Michael: Hi, Brian. Long-time listener, huge fan. I am a new teacher, basically. I've been doing this for about 4 years after 30 years of producing television and working freelance. My wife said get a real job, so I started teaching and I'll tell you the one thing that I recognize and I think it's been mentioned before, we all have $300 this year. It was 250 prior to spend on what they call Teacher's Choice.

It's interesting, I've noticed that when I come into the school year, I look to myself and I think, what do I need and what and what can I use that $300 for? I have had to supplement sometimes, but as an art teacher and as an artist myself, I feel the challenge is always to be creative. Every classroom I've gone into has been previously occupied by another teacher since I said I'm new.

I've found that there's been a lot of stuff just left over. That's wasted and all you take is a new creative set of eyes to look at that stuff and figure, how can I repurpose it? I've often found that my other colleagues, my other teachers are often very supporting of me in what do I need? I have found myself dipping into my wallet from time to time but as a parent of two New York City public school children, I find it interesting because every year our son's school gives us a list of stuff to get. It's a grocery list that I find can be a little bit too much sometimes, and I wonder sometimes if PTOs or PTAs can help out with that.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Michael. Appreciate it. We'll end by throwing in this tweet in our last seconds. Dori on Twitter writes, as that just flashed off my screen. Here it is. "I bought clothes and shoes and paid for trips for many of my students who lived in Jacob Rees housing and shelters while the PTA I belong to at my son's school raised $100,000." It's a story of inequality too. Thanks for your calls and tweets.

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