Teachers spending their own money stocking classrooms; Rockford Goodwill steps in

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — With school supplies costs up by almost 24% since 2022, teachers have been using their own money to help stock their classrooms.

“It was really just a desk and furniture and everything else was for me, I had to buy,” said Ledgewood Elementary teacher Amie Spitson. “The school did provide me with the curriculum materials, but anything that I want to enrich the students with, we have to pay for on our own. Last year I came back into the classroom after a few years off and I basically had to start over. So I would say I spent, you know, well near $2,000 through getting furniture, supplies, books, things like that.”

Over 90% of teachers spend their own money on supplies, shelling out between $5 – $700 on average, according to the National Education Association.

Now, Goodwill Industries is helping teachers carry the burden by giving out free supplies to educators. On Tuesday, the non-profit held a giveaway, called the Teachers Book Your Classroom, which allowed teachers to take as many books as they could stuff in a totebag.

“We definitely see a lot of teachers coming through to Goodwill to get school supplies for their classroom and to stock up on those books,” said Goodwill’s special projects manager, Trisha Welte. “So kind of helping them when we know that it comes from a lot of their own personal funds to do so. So this will free up some additional funds for them to do different things within their classroom.”

Spitson, and fellow Ledgewood Elementary teacher Deirdre Shugart, said they will be adding 40 to 50 books to their classroom, at no cost to them.

“I had absolutely no books from my library and through this program itself, they let me have like six bags of books and it completely funded and supplied all of my actual books for the classroom library,” Spitson said.

The Teachers Book Your Classroom event goes through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Goodwill Mission Services Building on Church Street.

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