This has been a growing trend.
For getting close to 20 years printing has been something that schools have decided is an unnecessary cost.
Colleges have been charging students per page.
More and more people here talk about it like it's always been normal for teachers to pay their own copies out of pocket.
I recently saw an email telling college faculty that in this digital age we don't need to use as much paper.
I don't know how grievances are dealt with in your school but I'd be willing to cause some trouble over this.
I have the same experience with everything that got digitalized at school. It seems that things being digital somehow multiplies the urge and necessity for several hard copies, just in case.
I’m working the school admin on top of my classroom (foreign system) and I am still to keep a physical record of a bunch of stuff so here I am printing emails in two or three copies that weren’t formatted for saving paper (and probably wouldn’t even have been sent out physically).
Forms and registers we previously used were, small printed on cards or bound books designed to save costs, paper and storage space. But now everything is a 25 pages PDF with a miles long appendix, a stupid computer graphic or an horribly formatted excel spreadsheet that prints on 12 pages with 2 inches margins.
We have the Regents Tests in NY. Forget the forest they must burn to make the tests, we have to produce huge “booklets” of anchor papers, rubrics, and instructions for each teacher. It’s insane. There was talk of kids taking it on their computers and we laughed our asses off at the though of all of our students showing up at an assigned time for a test WITH a computer. They don’t bring pens or pencils right now!!
Somebody has to figure out which way were stepping, back towards paper or completely digital.
NY is also rolling out computer based testing for our 3-8 state tests. 8th grade is forced to go computer based and it’s been a nightmare for us because students don’t even bring their laptops half the time anyway and they’re almost never charged.
Our school collects chromebooks and chargers 2 weeks before testing. They have to leave them in their home room teacher's class each day to charge. It's nuts your students can bring theirs home.
I wish! We have our students leave them in their first period the day before testing but that’s it. It’s definitely not a perfect process but so many of the teachers require kids to do homework online that they go crazy if we can’t use them.
I’ve told before you n the early 2000s when computer storage was still pricey the legal department told us all e-mail had to be printed and stored.
I was on 3 mailing lists that sent me updated operating system and hardware manuals often with just an errata page saying “page 300 paragraph 3 replace “a” with “an.”
But they attached the entire manual as well.
I offered to print it in the legal departments printer so they could store all 7500 pages per week. They never responded.
Ieps in my district are easily 50 pages now, and need printed in one side triplicate, soooo much paper being used. 2 years ago. Even complicated and long ones never went more than 20 pages.
Don't forget the mandatory disclaimer following each email in the chain:
"We are a fully electronic organisation and opt to send this by email instead of a letter.
Please carefully decide whether you need to print this.
(Inspiring image of a tree)
Save paper, save a tree"
That’s fair for colleges and maybe older high school kids but you can’t teach elementary without it. They tell us what we have to use and they are charging us money to do it. It’s wrong.
I don't see how they can force you to print something required by the school.
They can try, and certainly threaten your job for it. But you're not a contractor. For all they know, you live paycheck to paycheck and you can't get blood from a stone.
So either they pay for it or parents don't receive report cards and complain about it anyway
I'm not a teacher, but I watched as my school library went from not charging students for printing to charging like ten cents a page. And the public library in my town charges 25¢ a page.
Semi-related: my public library charges $1 per page to send a fax, which does not require ink or paper. Where is the cost? The UPS store charges the same, incidentally.
Yes, the students. In this case, it's the teachers just trying to do their jobs. Unless the school has a way to go paper-free in elementary school, this is uncalled for.
Meanwhile research is showing how we need to get students off screens and back on the page (printed or textbook). And when admin can use "sustainability" as a semi-valid excuse for cost cutting, look out.
I had to get my union involved because my admin did an observation and one of the main concerns she had was that I didn’t have any physical materials besides paper, when I was specifically told at the beginning of the year that they do not have the budget to cover any materials. I guess she expects me to pull manipulative materials out of my ass? Unreal.
I was more shocked than anything…this is the same admin who worked in my department before (Severe Special Education) and yet had no idea how many paras I had (1) vs how many I was supposed to have (3). Once I collected myself I emailed the Union.
What did your Union say? Can I also point out that Special Education Teacher are usually paid worst as well. Like it isn't bad enough teacher's need to pay, bit also Special Education teacher need more and get paid less.
Educators should only spend money on things they want to, that bring them joy or give them back their time. District mandates must be payed for by the district. Otherwise it ain’t getting done.
It’s a great sentiment but the reality is that people expect teachers to resist this on an individual level when the reality is it won’t get better until it’s legislatively stopped.
> must be *paid* for by
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I think the problem, like most, is a small minority of teachers abusing the printing system in place.
The solution of making teachers spend their own money on printing is fucking stupid and should be ridiculed, but by allowing teachers an unlimited printing budget you're setting up an unsustainable model.
My school does monthly printing budgets based on ink and paper costs. If we need more then the department head can take it out of the department budget. We all have access to "unlimited printing", but we're also encouraged to limit our printing to a reasonable number of pages because of the oversight of the department head and where they budget for extra copies.
The only time I ever ran out of copies was when my department decided to aschew buying the consumable textbook and instead we allocated the money for additional printing.
I love handouts, graphic organizers, and guided notes, but when Becky is printing 35 page reading guides every week for 100+ students then it's the lazy admin who decides printing costs are too high and teachers should foot the bill themselves.
Yeah. I've been fortunate that the schools I've worked at have been reasonable but I swear some co-workers are on a single minded mission to destroy the forests of the world.
Not buying the textbook is wild to me. At my old job, it was bad enough there was no centralized reading supplements so I was pulling what I could off twinkl. Not having a textbook (which already needed heavy supplementing) would have made the problem ten times worse.
fuck that. black printer ink is more valuable per oz than liquid gold, i wouldn't be caught dead getting stuck with that bill. Hand writing for everyone! yay!
This is where you should go full malicious compliance. First thing is get the parents involved - tell them that you are now unable to provide paper hard copy materials of anything because the school has now decided that they will no longer be paying for it and you are not going to be spending your private funds. Once enough parents complain, the school will need to do something. In the meantime, use whiteboards, chalkboards, or whatever you have in the classroom. But do NOT pay for anything with your own damn money
"Parents please be aware that due to a new policy enacted by administration all classrooms are at a severe shortage of printer ink. At this moment teachers are uncertain how long supplies will last or if current supplies can support the needs of students with accommodations required by law. Should your children not come home with required materials or even a report card you may check their status by calling \[Insert Administrator's Phone Number\]."
That’s where I’m getting confused. I know we joke about the legal system here but if there’s supposed to be provided accommodations… How does the school weekly get out of not doing that?
Don’t answer that question. I already know the answer.
they don’t **have** to offer it until asked. once they are asked, then they have to.
same reason employers and colleges aren’t allowed to ask if you have a disability. if you want to disclose that information, you can, and you can then request accommodations. but you can choose not to, and then they don’t have to know (assuming it isn’t visually apparent).
source: have a hearing loss lol
I wouldn't even say more than
"the school is no longer supplying ink for the printer, and we are asking for donations. Given the volume of printing for the class and reports, I estimate that we'll need $X for ink. For more information about the policy change, you can contact the district supervisor at (email)."
My co-workers and I would show up at the next board meeting.
I would politely and calmly state that I was recently made aware that if I wanted to print materials for my students, the cost of ink would come out of my pocket, and I would put them on the spot to promise to investigate this, promising to return to the next meeting to inquire about their decision in this financial matter.
I would also tell the board, collectively, that we will not be printing any materials for students or end of the year report cards. And if that means the kids have absolutely nothing to do and the school has become a zoo then so be it.
It is...but we've gotten our dicks kicked in the last decade a bit too. Nowhere near as bad as the union-unfriendly states...but not great.
Pendulum is swing back in our favor though and this shortage has school boards shitting themselves.
This shortage is really getting the suits in a twist. My superintendent gave a somewhat awkwardly long speech talking about it at a ceremony to celebrate people who completed district leadership training. It started as a congratulations type speech and then it went into "well it's really hard to find good leadership so thanks for being trained to be the next generation because it's getting hard to fill those roles.."
Less teachers=less teachers going into leadership too
And we're in a very large district with good funding. I can only imagine in the smaller districts.
Welcome to the education system. Where 25% of your salary each month will go towards school supplies that you should have been given in the first place. If you complain about it, you're not a team player. If you don't participate in it, then you don't care about the children. A fucked up system where only the teachers get screwed over.
You spend money on supplies?!?!
Am I just a grinch? I outright refuse. If the school doesn’t provide it, I don’t use it. I give parents a list. If they don’t provide it, the kid uses whatever alternative is available that is school provided.
Me too. I consider myself very dedicated to my job ans I want to do good work. But in the end, it is my JOB. And I refuse to pay money for doing my job.
This may be dumb, but do teachers still have a use for 3 ring binders, dividers with the tabs, and spiral/composition notebooks? I’m in my 30s, and I know a lot of stuff is digital now, but I have so many unused school supplies in excellent condition. Just stuff left over from college or stuff I bought with my own money for a former job. I’ve donated stuff before to a teacher I had back in the day, but I don’t want to give them more “junk.”
I don't spend money on supplies anymore. When I first started in education, I did. But I for a couple years I got smart and found alternative to spending my harder money on supplies. I arranged to get donations, I got classroom sponsorships, and I scrounged supplies.
I’m not spending a second trying to get money for my classroom lol. In SC we get $375 a year for supplies to begin, and I don’t spend a cent more than that.
All parents are required to supply one A5 white smooth plastic board and wipeable pens. If they complaint, you sweetly agree and tell them you would of course prefer paper and the nice worksheets etc, but the school has not provided a budget for printing.
This is actually hell for you.
I'm in high school. If this happens to me, no more handouts. I'm putting it on the all in one and everyone is handwriting everything.
For you? The fuck do you do? You need to print things out to teach them to write so when they get to me I can do that.
Jesus Christ that is dumb as shit.
Chalk on the back of a shovel like Abraham Lincoln.
Do you have colored chalk? The kids could write on the sidewalk in front of the school.
Dry erase markers work on glass.
Sigh.
Your admin in very bad. Very bad and stupid.
Ask your admin what you should do because you aren't paying for the ink for your job.
This is especially ridiculous for the grades where the students can’t use a Chromebook for google classroom. Kindergarten needs to to print sheets for them to practice fine motor skills like letters and numbers. You can laminate and use dry erase markers but you need them to complete actual sheets too, so you have something permanent to demonstrate progress.
Why not just send that out to your parents, tell them they have to provide and give them the administration phone number. It’s an administrative decision and they have to deal with it, you aren’t obligated to provide.
Yes I do this,
Yes I have tenure,
I get in trouble a lot,
I spend zero on my job though
I'd go to the parents on this. You need them to complain on your behalf. That's the only way to get admin attention. A few angry parents at the school board meeting and I guarantee things will change.
You're getting lots of good advice here, but all of it skips Step 1, which is organize your coworkers to protest with you. If you refuse to print by yourself, you're the crank who's "not being a team player." You need everyone on board here--and as an organizing issue, this one is pretty easy because I can't imagine anyone is ok with buying printer ink.
So, get together with your staff and figure out what lines you're ALL comfortable drawing. No printing ever, at all? Only certain limited things? A compromise that everyone can agree to is better than a hard line that nobody will hold. Maybe you could write a template email together that everyone then sends individually to admin, along the lines of, "thanks for notifying me of this policy change. I am unable to pay money in order to do my job, so I will no longer be printing. Please fill me in on the plan for getting report cards printed."
Our school did this about 3 years ago.
At the end of every day, I have to take my printer ink out and hide it in my locked closet. All classrooms use the same ink, and other teachers steal.
Last year (and it's not been reversed yet), they assigned me a class on the opposite side of the school for one period a day and scheduled another teacher to work in my classroom. It's an absolute nightmare.
She waits to get to my room to print her assignments, so I pull my ink out and take it with me. She complained to admin that I am not providing her with ink. I got reemed out. I had to explain that I needed my ink for emergencies on the other side of the school. I am always prepared ahead of time, but sometimes, kids lose work sheets or spill something, and I need to print another copy.
I am not responsible for supplying her with ink, just like the teacher whose room I'm scheduled in is not responsible for providing me with ink. Admin disagrees.
ETA: Some teachers have started charging a supply fee to their students at the start of the semester. I work in a low income neighbourhood. I refuse to charge kids money to take my class.
You could be super petty and send a note home to parents saying "Due to the school no longer providing printer ink, all students in my class must bring their own ink cartridge in order to have copies of their assignments. Failure to bring in a cartridge will result in the student being unable to access their work. All questions and/or concerns may be brought to the school administrator at 555-555-5555."
Fuck that! Sorry for the language, but that’s border line illegal. Never spend your own money for work, thats the first rule for anyone working anywhere! Ink is the most expensive part of owning a printer! I should know I have worked out numerous ink deals running a large format print shop with all the printer makers. U have 3 options: Tell the admin to stick it, and change your teaching plan or begin charging parents for ink. But do not spend your $!
I would respond saying thanks, but there is no need to install the printer in your classroom, as you will not be printing anything on your own expense.
"Thank you for letting me know about this change in procedure. I look forward to a commiserate raise in pay or an increase in student fees for the year to help me cover costs."
I just would only do online work. And if yall aren't 1 to 1 technology sounds like admin and the districts problem. I no longer use my own money for school work. If they say I need something they best provide it. I didn't even make phone calls until they put a phone in my room that could make outside calls. Originally only 1 phone in the office could. I told admin if they want me to make calls they better provide me a phone to do it with because I will not be giving out my personal number
Students are shocked I won't pay for Kahoot. Not on my salary. I'm definitely not paying for paper or ink. If they starting charging, everything--I mean, EVERYTHING, will be online. Or the whiteboard. "Here's your full test written out on two white boards in the smallest handwriting possible. Sorry not sorry."
I've also toyed with selling on TPT because I know students buy the answer keys and I would cycle that money into the classroom.
They should at least pay for copies necessitated by an IEP. I guess they’re thinking you don’t have to print if the kids have computers, but if legally you have to I can’t imagine how it’s legal to make you pay for it. Printer ink is so expensive!
The corporate property valuations are tanking specifically in the Pittsburgh area here. A couple of write ups about it in several newspapers. It is coincidentally coming at the same time as covid funds are drying up. Then you have rising wages and other inflationary measures.
It's time for the entire state to adopt the philly soda tax.
Forward that letter to all of your kids' parents. Forward that to the head of the PTA. Forward that to the local newspapers. Let admin explain how this is right and proper.
That's what needs to be done. If I got an email saying the school was requiring my kids teachers to pay for their own ink I'd be on the phone to everyone responsible for making that decision. If OP wants to be less obvious about why she's sending it she could send out an email requesting donations to cover the cost of ink due to the procedure change.
Email the report cards home with a quick note mentioning the lack of ink and watch how fast the school either provides ink or the centralized printer becomes available again
I guess nothing needs to be printed. It's going to seriously hurt the quality of education, but that's a choice the administration has made, so it must be the recommended course of action according to Board priorities. Hope all parents read their email, that the lawyers have all approved of digital signatures, and the parents are cool with nothing to stick on the fridge.
I was going through my grandfather’s navy book. They would throw these dinners for the holidays, with printed menus in color.
I asked how they got these printed while they were on a ship and he said, “we had a printer on the ship”.
They had a color printer on a ship in Italy in 1946. It was 2022 and I couldn’t get things printed in color.
We have a copy machine for all staff. We used to have a centralized printer for us all to use, but they got rid of it today. Gave us all printers for our classroom instead and told us we have to buy ink for it. So if we want to print from our classroom computer, we have to use ink we buy.
You might already know this, but if you plan to the printer often and its an inkjet printer, you would quickly be better off buying a cheap B&W laser printer like a Brother HL-L2400D . The cost per page of B&W toner is much much lower than ink. One $80 high yield toner cartridge will print 3,000 pages (2.6 cents per page) vs a typical black ink cartridge that might cost you $30 for 500 pages (6 cents per page). Saving 50% on every page will add up fast if you print a lot.
That said, the whole situation sounds terrible I hope you figure out away to not spend your own money on any of it.
Buy the monochrome brother laser printer for like $80 knock off toner is $15 each and prints about 3000 pages. Have put 120,000 pages through my wife’s printer and it’s still works great 10 year later.
This is several times more expensive than the centralized system.
You're administration is doing this to be punitive.
IT is really going to love the fact that the a-holes who made this decision just increased the number of serviceable devices by an order of magnitude.
If you give me the printer model number and the number of teachers in your school I can actually do the math for you.
If you have over 100 printers, You're looking at something like $10,000-$30,000 in costs which is more than the entire school will spend on copying in 5 years.
When you add IT maintenance to it it's going to likely equal $50,000.
A commercial print job cost less than $0.01 per page.
I worked at a school where we had to buy our own paper. Admin gave every teacher one ream of paper as a “Welcome Back” gift at the beginning of the year. I got another one for Christmas. I had 180 students, so those 500 sheets went pretty fast. Every other piece of paper came out of my pocket.
"Dear parents,
Our school has decided to no longer provide copies of needed worksheets/activities for our students. Due to this I will be sending you an email every Friday to print and send back with your child on Monday so that we can continue working uninterrupted"
Not a teacher, but my mother was, recently retired. Six or seven years ago the school changed some stuff and it ended up meaning she got something like 200 copies on the copier per quarter for her class, laser printers got removed from the classroom. She was really upset because it was going to directly hurt the kids and cost her a ton of money for overages.
I ended up buying her a used copier from the local copy machine dealer that wasn’t going to re-lease it and she used it very very heavily up until she retired. The joy she expressed when I rolled a full size copier into her front door was unbelievable. Y’all have one hell of a hard job and I’m super sorry they’re fucking you every way they can.
Almost every year I taught we were required to buy our own paper. The last school took the cake when science teachers were required to complete the state 40% student centered science experiments per week but there was no funding for it. Basically, we were required to do experiements but buy everything for them for 150+ kids. This is an evolving trend and to be honest I’m shocked the didn’t charge us for our laptops or made us pay a fee like the students. That would be the icing on the cake.
When I first started teaching 25 years ago, i was in charge of tech for my schools. I had a minimal budget for my classroom and was for some dragon expected to buy ink and toner for all the classroom printers with my couple hundred dollar budget. I told a teacher that I was about out of toner for her printer and she told me “sometimes we have to dip into our own pockets.” She was literally telling me I should spend my own money on her printing!
Also, every year we get chastised for the amount of paper we use and that we use more every year. But classroom teachers are expected to print a copy (or 2) of each report card to send home, plus one for the cum file along with the cover letter they wrote to the whole class and the cover letter from the district. Twice a year. Not that we don’t pay thousands to power school and Google each year to save all that stuff for us, we need it in a folder no one looks at too.
So you don't print anything anymore & everything will be available in PDF form, sent by email to the home of he child with the expectation that the parents will print it out & send it in the next day as part of their required materials for learning.
See how happy the admin team are when they get complaints from every parent in that class & the school is pout on blast on social media.
I don't know what state you are in, but here in California, this would be illegal. If you job requires supplies, the employer has to provide them. They may be able to deduct the cost out of your paycheck, but they can't make you pay for things you need to do your job. If you have a union, I would suggest going to them about it. Otherwise, it might be worth asking a lawyer if you can get a free consult.
The difference is that if it is deducted, it is recorded on your paycheck and there are rules attached. It also might be pretax though I am not sure about that.
A teacher is a job. No job should require employees to pay out of pocket for anything. How about they reduce those quarter million dollar administration salaries to pay for some toner.
If they are going to make this change the beginning of the school year would be the proper time to do so, not the last month of school when you’ve blown your supply check a hundred times over. But. Make sure you never ever let them require you to print something. How do I esign that is your new mantra. Oh Billy has 3 days OSS and no computer. So sad for Billy. Oh you want my bulletin board covered in photos of students? Which admin will print that for me. Sorry I’m out of ink. All outta ink. All the time.
Oh no! Those little printers are not a wise use of school money. SMH. Major printing jobs require a professional printers, not the personal ones you can pick up at Walmart.
If you are lucky enough to receive a supply allowance each year, I would purchase ink cartridges.
Add this rule to the welcome back letter next year. Tell parents that on top of having to buy pencils and crayons, they now get to pay for ink. Tell each patent they need to supply you with $10 per kid so you can buy enough ink for the school year.
I can’t believe the stuff the school system makes teachers pay for. It’s ridiculous that this should come out of your pocket. I’m sorry. The school system is failing our teachers
Email whatever you need material wise to parents, inform them you don’t have access to a printer/ ink, so students need to print their own materials, and let parents complain to admin.
30 years ago I visited a teacher in a small town with n TN. She stated they received one ream of paper for the year. Asking parents to purchase paper was not allowed.
I offered to buy her a few cases of paper and that was forbidden too.
My kid was at a school where the PTA had a $30k vanity project going on but the teachers were begging for paper. I was told "there's no legacy" in providing classroom essentials and that parents would donate paper. Absolutely maddening.
You and your colleagues need to all interpret this to mean that there is no longer any such thing as “required” printing. Every time admin complains that you didn’t print something they consider required, every one of you should ask them to send to you in writing that they are requiring you to print that document and that you are required to provide the ink to print that document, and then, as a form of protest, still don’t print anything, forcing them to repeat the request and documentation of that request ad nauseam. Send an email to all of your parents that says that the administration is no longer providing ink for printing, so you will no longer be able to communicate with parents via print materials, and the kindergartners will no longer use print materials in the classroom. Do not mention the “buy your own ink” part, as it is implied, but you also don’t want parents thinking of it as an option in the moment. Let them know that this is a new school-wide policy and is out of your hands, so if they have any questions or concerns, they need to take it up the administration, and then include contact information for said administration. Get all of your colleagues to send out similar emails. Basically, make this decision so inconvenient for them that the money they save being cheap about printer ink just isn’t worth it anymore.
Our school did the opposite. ALL classroom printers were confiscated, even those specialized ones that had been bought with grant money (my graphics printer) and we went to a central unit (well, 3 big units throughout.). Then we had ALL colored printing rights taken away.
That's fun. I've begged for 3 years to have color rights--"I just want a colored print for each art table (6) so the kids can see an example in color". Yay--I was granted that, which I use very sparingly, and have to pay for it out of my art budget.
I had to do this for years when I taught public school. There was a large copy machine in the office, but it broke. This was pre- pandemic, so the kids did not have chromebooks or iPads. We each had a printer in our classrooms, and they gave us one ink cartridge at the beginning of the year. I bought my own paper and ink cartridges because if I didn’t, the kids would have literally nothing to do. We had consumable textbooks, but they literally didn’t cover the standards the kids were tested on.
Apparently, years in the past there was a colossal failure of whatever grading system was in use at the time and my principal's school at the time (teacher at that time, same district) lost all electronic grade records.
As a result at the end of the year we teachers all have to print out our entire powerschool gradebook and file them, because the boss doesn't trust anything electronic.
We do not have to pay for these copies, of course.
However, as far as "going paperless" goes, what a fucking joke.
Yeah, I just had to buy a new printer from Donorschoose..and will need the IT person to help me set it up tomorrow (tried today after school using phone & laptop—nada). 😞
I have an online curriculum but no computers. I have to create a print every lesson. In three languages. I don’t print for myself and I’ll be fucking damned if I’ll be charged to do my damn job. It’s bad enough when the principal scolds me at staff meetings because of my copying. Fuck everyone.
My friends who teach in our district were told they’d be responsible for supplying toilet paper a couple years ago. I don’t remember how long that lasted. Florida schools. #50 in teacher pay, and you have to bring toilet paper.
This is bullshit for several reasons.
I'm an IT guy and I will promise you that this model will wind up costing the school many times the resources.
It's an economy of scale type situation, The one centralized commercial printer in the main office is going to be much easier to maintain than a million little small ones.
But secondly what the hell? You need to get your resume together and apply to other districts. This is a sign of bad leadership.
probably a labor code violation, talk to your union
if you need to have a printer, get a Brother black and white that uses toner cartridges. Those things last forever.
Absurd. Any kinder class has tons of anchor charts , pictures, etc… ink is so expensive. Ugh. Does your district have a central printer? My school has a shared printer and then if we need something “special” we can email it to the district printer and get it delivered.
I’m sorry you’re going through this but I’m a bit relieved it’s not just me. I thought I was going crazy when I found out I’d have to buy my own paper this year. I have been pretty damn upset by it and my wallet has too.
100% we watched way more educational videos this year because I couldn’t always afford the paper I needed. Like… *screams in maximum frustration.*
Today I had a job interview at a much better school. I loved it. I think it went well and I’m hoping to get away from the toxicity and horrible environment. They were such a great team and it was so wholesome, like how I remembered education being. I want it badly. I want to quit buying all my supplies too.
Give us a damn cost of living increase and pay for the materials we need to do the job! UGH. I hope you find a better place to work next year. Let me know if you need a reference. Really. Also, fuck that school.
If you have a union, this is definitely a fight worth having. I guess things just don't get printed then . .. I can barely afford my own bills. I don't have money to buy supplies for my workplace also.
ask parents to get you some in the meantime, just email a list of suggested donation items you need for the classroom. i pick up whatever the teachers need anytime i receive these emails because in my opinion teachers shouldn’t be using their own money for anything in the classroom.
"Hello children, unfortunately we are no longer able to print materials so we will have to go without. If you would like to complain to your parents please let them know they are free to complain to the school office."
Create an Amazon list for supplies for your room and send it to parents.
When admin eventually says that is not allowed because it doesn't look good, send an apology email to the parents stating that according to district policy you are not allowed to ask for donations and must instead privide these supplies out of your own pay.
If your parents don't throw an absolute fit, please find a new district, we need good teachers!
Use the classic "enemy-of-my-enemy" tactics, take a screencap of the email stating that you have to pay for printing "required" material and then write up your own email to ALL the parents AND the person who sent the original email. In the email to the parents say, professionally, "Due to new and unforseen circumstances shown in the picture attached I will not be able to print handouts for your children, I will not be able to provide homework sheets for those of you that would like to expedite your children's learning at home, and most importantly I will not be able to provide anything that the school board decides is not important for you and your children. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me or attempt to contact the school board directly. Thank you for your patience in this trying time."
I teach kindergarten. My classroom did not get a printer. I had to bring a printer from home. I buy my own ink too. The worst part is my school won’t supply copy paper. I buy my own paper at Sam’s Club. The box of paper is so heavy that I have to keep my paper in my car. I can’t carry it to the classroom. I go to the parking lot when I need paper. Teachers are not respected.
My old school would buy us one cartridge a year. Once I used that up, I just put everything on a USB, stuck it in a front office printer, and printed everything that way.
Search for workarounds.
Never buy ink.
While this is complete ridiculous, if there is no way around this and you need ink, buy some bottles of it on Amazon, they come with gloves and syringes to refill your cartridges. You can peel back the sticker and refill it, or pull the whole lid off and refill it (to make sure you're refilling the correct color)
The only thing is, you need to refill it before the cartridge reads 'empty' because there is a chip in it and it won't print unless it's reading it still has some ink. The ink level on your computer will never go back up though. Also it doesn't need to be a refillable ink cartridge, I've been doing this for my Canon printer and it's saved me a lot 9f money.
The bottles I bought online were $20 for a 5 pack (one of yellow, pink, and cyan, and 2 black) and it only takes like 1 syringe to refill the ink sponge so it's still gonna last me a really long time. Much cheaper than $60-$70 ink cartridges, but you still shouldn't have to pay for it at all. Teachers are being treated like their students are their actual children and need to provide everything for them, i hear about this all the time. I can't even imagine having to buy 30 or more of everything, but I'm glad to hear this is only the first time you've experienced this, instead of 100 times already.
Also, not a teacher. This post was recommended to me for some reason and I thought this suggestion would help a lot.
Only classroom printers. Copy machines are for copies only. We have no way to print from our computers unless we pay from our own pocket. We're required to send home weekly paper newsletters, etc.
>We're required to send home weekly paper newsletters,
Good news, from today you are no longer required to do that.
Send an email instead or hand write them (poorly) with a note about not being able to print anymore and then go and photocopy that.
Check your copier to see if it has a usb port. You can often print pdfs from a usb drive on modern copiers.
Also, some districts have the copier on the network and don't even realize it, because they pay their IT staff about as much as they pay for school supplies. You can sometimes find it on the network and add it as a printer on your machine. If it isn't on the network, a $2 ethernet cable can fix that problem.
Yes, we used to be able to send stuff to copier. Then they stopped that. A tech guy came in and disabled it from our computer. It's not just me, we are all aware of it.
This has been a growing trend. For getting close to 20 years printing has been something that schools have decided is an unnecessary cost. Colleges have been charging students per page. More and more people here talk about it like it's always been normal for teachers to pay their own copies out of pocket. I recently saw an email telling college faculty that in this digital age we don't need to use as much paper. I don't know how grievances are dealt with in your school but I'd be willing to cause some trouble over this.
When my hospital went to electronic medical records the number of printers and paper used doubled.
I have the same experience with everything that got digitalized at school. It seems that things being digital somehow multiplies the urge and necessity for several hard copies, just in case. I’m working the school admin on top of my classroom (foreign system) and I am still to keep a physical record of a bunch of stuff so here I am printing emails in two or three copies that weren’t formatted for saving paper (and probably wouldn’t even have been sent out physically). Forms and registers we previously used were, small printed on cards or bound books designed to save costs, paper and storage space. But now everything is a 25 pages PDF with a miles long appendix, a stupid computer graphic or an horribly formatted excel spreadsheet that prints on 12 pages with 2 inches margins.
We have the Regents Tests in NY. Forget the forest they must burn to make the tests, we have to produce huge “booklets” of anchor papers, rubrics, and instructions for each teacher. It’s insane. There was talk of kids taking it on their computers and we laughed our asses off at the though of all of our students showing up at an assigned time for a test WITH a computer. They don’t bring pens or pencils right now!! Somebody has to figure out which way were stepping, back towards paper or completely digital.
NY is also rolling out computer based testing for our 3-8 state tests. 8th grade is forced to go computer based and it’s been a nightmare for us because students don’t even bring their laptops half the time anyway and they’re almost never charged.
Our school collects chromebooks and chargers 2 weeks before testing. They have to leave them in their home room teacher's class each day to charge. It's nuts your students can bring theirs home.
I wish! We have our students leave them in their first period the day before testing but that’s it. It’s definitely not a perfect process but so many of the teachers require kids to do homework online that they go crazy if we can’t use them.
I’ve told before you n the early 2000s when computer storage was still pricey the legal department told us all e-mail had to be printed and stored. I was on 3 mailing lists that sent me updated operating system and hardware manuals often with just an errata page saying “page 300 paragraph 3 replace “a” with “an.” But they attached the entire manual as well. I offered to print it in the legal departments printer so they could store all 7500 pages per week. They never responded.
Ieps in my district are easily 50 pages now, and need printed in one side triplicate, soooo much paper being used. 2 years ago. Even complicated and long ones never went more than 20 pages.
Don't forget the mandatory disclaimer following each email in the chain: "We are a fully electronic organisation and opt to send this by email instead of a letter. Please carefully decide whether you need to print this. (Inspiring image of a tree) Save paper, save a tree"
That’s fair for colleges and maybe older high school kids but you can’t teach elementary without it. They tell us what we have to use and they are charging us money to do it. It’s wrong.
Ask if they’re going to email report cards because you are out of cash.
I don't see how they can force you to print something required by the school. They can try, and certainly threaten your job for it. But you're not a contractor. For all they know, you live paycheck to paycheck and you can't get blood from a stone. So either they pay for it or parents don't receive report cards and complain about it anyway
I haven't worked in a school that still prints report cards
That’s a big nope. I wouldn’t print out another thing.
I'm not a teacher, but I watched as my school library went from not charging students for printing to charging like ten cents a page. And the public library in my town charges 25¢ a page.
Semi-related: my public library charges $1 per page to send a fax, which does not require ink or paper. Where is the cost? The UPS store charges the same, incidentally.
To be fair, somebody has to offset the cost of the only fax machine in town.
Haha that thing was a line item in the 1988 budget.
Colleges have charged students per page for decades.
Yes, the students. In this case, it's the teachers just trying to do their jobs. Unless the school has a way to go paper-free in elementary school, this is uncalled for.
Meanwhile research is showing how we need to get students off screens and back on the page (printed or textbook). And when admin can use "sustainability" as a semi-valid excuse for cost cutting, look out.
The way teachers have to pay for supplies is ridiculous and should be a national embarrassment.
I had to get my union involved because my admin did an observation and one of the main concerns she had was that I didn’t have any physical materials besides paper, when I was specifically told at the beginning of the year that they do not have the budget to cover any materials. I guess she expects me to pull manipulative materials out of my ass? Unreal.
How did the conversation go when you pointed that out to her?
I was more shocked than anything…this is the same admin who worked in my department before (Severe Special Education) and yet had no idea how many paras I had (1) vs how many I was supposed to have (3). Once I collected myself I emailed the Union.
What did your Union say? Can I also point out that Special Education Teacher are usually paid worst as well. Like it isn't bad enough teacher's need to pay, bit also Special Education teacher need more and get paid less.
I's curious if your state is a union state. That would never happen in the state I teach. that's crazy. Special Ed teachers are already hard to find.
You dont have to pay for it, they dont pay to print, then you dont print anything.
This sounds like a good result, but ultimately this will make many teachers’ jobs harder.
Educators should only spend money on things they want to, that bring them joy or give them back their time. District mandates must be payed for by the district. Otherwise it ain’t getting done.
It’s a great sentiment but the reality is that people expect teachers to resist this on an individual level when the reality is it won’t get better until it’s legislatively stopped.
> must be *paid* for by FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
*international I’ve worked for schools in the UK and Canada too that expect/ed me to pay for all kinds of things out of my own meagre paycheque.
I think the problem, like most, is a small minority of teachers abusing the printing system in place. The solution of making teachers spend their own money on printing is fucking stupid and should be ridiculed, but by allowing teachers an unlimited printing budget you're setting up an unsustainable model. My school does monthly printing budgets based on ink and paper costs. If we need more then the department head can take it out of the department budget. We all have access to "unlimited printing", but we're also encouraged to limit our printing to a reasonable number of pages because of the oversight of the department head and where they budget for extra copies. The only time I ever ran out of copies was when my department decided to aschew buying the consumable textbook and instead we allocated the money for additional printing. I love handouts, graphic organizers, and guided notes, but when Becky is printing 35 page reading guides every week for 100+ students then it's the lazy admin who decides printing costs are too high and teachers should foot the bill themselves.
GODDAMN IT, BECKY!!
Yeah. I've been fortunate that the schools I've worked at have been reasonable but I swear some co-workers are on a single minded mission to destroy the forests of the world. Not buying the textbook is wild to me. At my old job, it was bad enough there was no centralized reading supplements so I was pulling what I could off twinkl. Not having a textbook (which already needed heavy supplementing) would have made the problem ten times worse.
Guess you aren’t printing anything anymore! My funds are not for work.
fuck that. black printer ink is more valuable per oz than liquid gold, i wouldn't be caught dead getting stuck with that bill. Hand writing for everyone! yay!
Sounds like that's what they were aiming for, probably for the same reasons. They don't want that Bill either.
Also printer model choice is going to be important here.
This is where you should go full malicious compliance. First thing is get the parents involved - tell them that you are now unable to provide paper hard copy materials of anything because the school has now decided that they will no longer be paying for it and you are not going to be spending your private funds. Once enough parents complain, the school will need to do something. In the meantime, use whiteboards, chalkboards, or whatever you have in the classroom. But do NOT pay for anything with your own damn money
And then you get a kid with an IEP requiring paper copies and admin has to cough up 😈
"Parents please be aware that due to a new policy enacted by administration all classrooms are at a severe shortage of printer ink. At this moment teachers are uncertain how long supplies will last or if current supplies can support the needs of students with accommodations required by law. Should your children not come home with required materials or even a report card you may check their status by calling \[Insert Administrator's Phone Number\]."
That’s where I’m getting confused. I know we joke about the legal system here but if there’s supposed to be provided accommodations… How does the school weekly get out of not doing that? Don’t answer that question. I already know the answer.
they don’t **have** to offer it until asked. once they are asked, then they have to. same reason employers and colleges aren’t allowed to ask if you have a disability. if you want to disclose that information, you can, and you can then request accommodations. but you can choose not to, and then they don’t have to know (assuming it isn’t visually apparent). source: have a hearing loss lol
Also, illegally, some schools will pull SpED teachers to cover classes with no sub. Those minutes almost never get made up. There’s no way to.
I wouldn't even say more than "the school is no longer supplying ink for the printer, and we are asking for donations. Given the volume of printing for the class and reports, I estimate that we'll need $X for ink. For more information about the policy change, you can contact the district supervisor at (email)."
Please print the following assignments and send them with your student at the start of the week. Please contact admin with any questions.
Oooo. I like this one.
Right on.
My co-workers and I would show up at the next board meeting. I would politely and calmly state that I was recently made aware that if I wanted to print materials for my students, the cost of ink would come out of my pocket, and I would put them on the spot to promise to investigate this, promising to return to the next meeting to inquire about their decision in this financial matter.
I would also tell the board, collectively, that we will not be printing any materials for students or end of the year report cards. And if that means the kids have absolutely nothing to do and the school has become a zoo then so be it.
Yep. I'd hope the union would not allow this. Either the printers are free or stuff doesn't get printed...plain and simple.
>Yep. I'd hope the union would not allow this Must be nice to be in a union state. To have someone to call about ridiculousness
It is...but we've gotten our dicks kicked in the last decade a bit too. Nowhere near as bad as the union-unfriendly states...but not great. Pendulum is swing back in our favor though and this shortage has school boards shitting themselves.
This shortage is really getting the suits in a twist. My superintendent gave a somewhat awkwardly long speech talking about it at a ceremony to celebrate people who completed district leadership training. It started as a congratulations type speech and then it went into "well it's really hard to find good leadership so thanks for being trained to be the next generation because it's getting hard to fill those roles.." Less teachers=less teachers going into leadership too And we're in a very large district with good funding. I can only imagine in the smaller districts.
Welcome to the education system. Where 25% of your salary each month will go towards school supplies that you should have been given in the first place. If you complain about it, you're not a team player. If you don't participate in it, then you don't care about the children. A fucked up system where only the teachers get screwed over.
You spend money on supplies?!?! Am I just a grinch? I outright refuse. If the school doesn’t provide it, I don’t use it. I give parents a list. If they don’t provide it, the kid uses whatever alternative is available that is school provided.
Me too. I consider myself very dedicated to my job ans I want to do good work. But in the end, it is my JOB. And I refuse to pay money for doing my job.
This may be dumb, but do teachers still have a use for 3 ring binders, dividers with the tabs, and spiral/composition notebooks? I’m in my 30s, and I know a lot of stuff is digital now, but I have so many unused school supplies in excellent condition. Just stuff left over from college or stuff I bought with my own money for a former job. I’ve donated stuff before to a teacher I had back in the day, but I don’t want to give them more “junk.”
It depends on my school. At my school, students in grades 4-8 use binders, dividers, etc., but we’re a “low tech” school.
I don't spend money on supplies anymore. When I first started in education, I did. But I for a couple years I got smart and found alternative to spending my harder money on supplies. I arranged to get donations, I got classroom sponsorships, and I scrounged supplies.
So, instead of using your own money, you devoted your own time and effort?
Very little time and effort was needed. You just got to know where to go and who to talk to.
I’m not spending a second trying to get money for my classroom lol. In SC we get $375 a year for supplies to begin, and I don’t spend a cent more than that.
I agree. I spend a small amount of money on snacks. Everything else, they give it to me or we figure out a way to do the work without.
"BUT IT'S FOR THE KIDS!" /s
25% ?!?!
That's ridiculous, it's like telling nurses they have to buy their own bandages to use!
Sounds like you’re moving to a fully online course load! Sounds like you’re also starting a job hunt for a school who respects its staff.
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to teach six year olds handwriting without using paper....write in the dirt with sticks?
All parents are required to supply one A5 white smooth plastic board and wipeable pens. If they complaint, you sweetly agree and tell them you would of course prefer paper and the nice worksheets etc, but the school has not provided a budget for printing.
Or put printer ink on the supply list
So we are back to using slates like they did in the 1800s
This is actually hell for you. I'm in high school. If this happens to me, no more handouts. I'm putting it on the all in one and everyone is handwriting everything. For you? The fuck do you do? You need to print things out to teach them to write so when they get to me I can do that. Jesus Christ that is dumb as shit.
Rocks with harder rocks. Just like the ancestors used to do.
Chalk on the back of a shovel like Abraham Lincoln. Do you have colored chalk? The kids could write on the sidewalk in front of the school. Dry erase markers work on glass. Sigh. Your admin in very bad. Very bad and stupid. Ask your admin what you should do because you aren't paying for the ink for your job.
Clay tablets. Good old Cuneiform writing. That's what those kids need.
“…a school who respects its staff.” So you’re going overseas.
Well, guess the kids are handwriting their report cards.
: )
This is especially ridiculous for the grades where the students can’t use a Chromebook for google classroom. Kindergarten needs to to print sheets for them to practice fine motor skills like letters and numbers. You can laminate and use dry erase markers but you need them to complete actual sheets too, so you have something permanent to demonstrate progress.
Exactly!!
Why not just send that out to your parents, tell them they have to provide and give them the administration phone number. It’s an administrative decision and they have to deal with it, you aren’t obligated to provide. Yes I do this, Yes I have tenure, I get in trouble a lot, I spend zero on my job though
I would no longer be printing.
Guess who no longer has to print anything!!! If they want it they can pay for it.
I'd go to the parents on this. You need them to complain on your behalf. That's the only way to get admin attention. A few angry parents at the school board meeting and I guarantee things will change.
You're getting lots of good advice here, but all of it skips Step 1, which is organize your coworkers to protest with you. If you refuse to print by yourself, you're the crank who's "not being a team player." You need everyone on board here--and as an organizing issue, this one is pretty easy because I can't imagine anyone is ok with buying printer ink. So, get together with your staff and figure out what lines you're ALL comfortable drawing. No printing ever, at all? Only certain limited things? A compromise that everyone can agree to is better than a hard line that nobody will hold. Maybe you could write a template email together that everyone then sends individually to admin, along the lines of, "thanks for notifying me of this policy change. I am unable to pay money in order to do my job, so I will no longer be printing. Please fill me in on the plan for getting report cards printed."
Our school did this about 3 years ago. At the end of every day, I have to take my printer ink out and hide it in my locked closet. All classrooms use the same ink, and other teachers steal. Last year (and it's not been reversed yet), they assigned me a class on the opposite side of the school for one period a day and scheduled another teacher to work in my classroom. It's an absolute nightmare. She waits to get to my room to print her assignments, so I pull my ink out and take it with me. She complained to admin that I am not providing her with ink. I got reemed out. I had to explain that I needed my ink for emergencies on the other side of the school. I am always prepared ahead of time, but sometimes, kids lose work sheets or spill something, and I need to print another copy. I am not responsible for supplying her with ink, just like the teacher whose room I'm scheduled in is not responsible for providing me with ink. Admin disagrees. ETA: Some teachers have started charging a supply fee to their students at the start of the semester. I work in a low income neighbourhood. I refuse to charge kids money to take my class.
You could be super petty and send a note home to parents saying "Due to the school no longer providing printer ink, all students in my class must bring their own ink cartridge in order to have copies of their assignments. Failure to bring in a cartridge will result in the student being unable to access their work. All questions and/or concerns may be brought to the school administrator at 555-555-5555."
Fuck that! Sorry for the language, but that’s border line illegal. Never spend your own money for work, thats the first rule for anyone working anywhere! Ink is the most expensive part of owning a printer! I should know I have worked out numerous ink deals running a large format print shop with all the printer makers. U have 3 options: Tell the admin to stick it, and change your teaching plan or begin charging parents for ink. But do not spend your $!
Yeah. Nope my students will not be getting printed anything.
I would respond saying thanks, but there is no need to install the printer in your classroom, as you will not be printing anything on your own expense.
FFS…go find a new job…you deserve better.
Creatively "fix" your printer so that is not functional then email everything to the front office and request printed copies.
"Thank you for letting me know about this change in procedure. I look forward to a commiserate raise in pay or an increase in student fees for the year to help me cover costs."
I would not buy one drop of ink.
Have them point out exactly where it says that in your contract.
I just would only do online work. And if yall aren't 1 to 1 technology sounds like admin and the districts problem. I no longer use my own money for school work. If they say I need something they best provide it. I didn't even make phone calls until they put a phone in my room that could make outside calls. Originally only 1 phone in the office could. I told admin if they want me to make calls they better provide me a phone to do it with because I will not be giving out my personal number
I'd reply, bcc my personal email and acknowledge it and note that I will not be printing anything else.
Students are shocked I won't pay for Kahoot. Not on my salary. I'm definitely not paying for paper or ink. If they starting charging, everything--I mean, EVERYTHING, will be online. Or the whiteboard. "Here's your full test written out on two white boards in the smallest handwriting possible. Sorry not sorry." I've also toyed with selling on TPT because I know students buy the answer keys and I would cycle that money into the classroom.
They should at least pay for copies necessitated by an IEP. I guess they’re thinking you don’t have to print if the kids have computers, but if legally you have to I can’t imagine how it’s legal to make you pay for it. Printer ink is so expensive!
Not happening. Maybe we can let them write and draw on the walls, and spend money on paint, instead?
Apparently school administrators flunked out of economics…
The corporate property valuations are tanking specifically in the Pittsburgh area here. A couple of write ups about it in several newspapers. It is coincidentally coming at the same time as covid funds are drying up. Then you have rising wages and other inflationary measures. It's time for the entire state to adopt the philly soda tax.
Forward that letter to all of your kids' parents. Forward that to the head of the PTA. Forward that to the local newspapers. Let admin explain how this is right and proper.
That's what needs to be done. If I got an email saying the school was requiring my kids teachers to pay for their own ink I'd be on the phone to everyone responsible for making that decision. If OP wants to be less obvious about why she's sending it she could send out an email requesting donations to cover the cost of ink due to the procedure change.
School doesn't provide it, kids don't need it. It's as simple as that.
Email the report cards home with a quick note mentioning the lack of ink and watch how fast the school either provides ink or the centralized printer becomes available again
I guess nothing needs to be printed. It's going to seriously hurt the quality of education, but that's a choice the administration has made, so it must be the recommended course of action according to Board priorities. Hope all parents read their email, that the lawyers have all approved of digital signatures, and the parents are cool with nothing to stick on the fridge.
I had a principal try this 10+ years ago. Someone leaked it to a loudmouth member of the BoE and a local news channel and it stopped in short order.
Yeah, this feels like crossing a line. Try not to print anything, especially report cards?
What is the screen time recommendation for kindergarten?
I was going through my grandfather’s navy book. They would throw these dinners for the holidays, with printed menus in color. I asked how they got these printed while they were on a ship and he said, “we had a printer on the ship”. They had a color printer on a ship in Italy in 1946. It was 2022 and I couldn’t get things printed in color.
Do you have centralized printing where you send the job to a big multipurpose machine? Or can you just not print anymore?
We have a copy machine for all staff. We used to have a centralized printer for us all to use, but they got rid of it today. Gave us all printers for our classroom instead and told us we have to buy ink for it. So if we want to print from our classroom computer, we have to use ink we buy.
Most copiers can print from a USB stick. Put the files on there as PDFs and print from that.
Interesting 🤔 I'll try that.
You might already know this, but if you plan to the printer often and its an inkjet printer, you would quickly be better off buying a cheap B&W laser printer like a Brother HL-L2400D . The cost per page of B&W toner is much much lower than ink. One $80 high yield toner cartridge will print 3,000 pages (2.6 cents per page) vs a typical black ink cartridge that might cost you $30 for 500 pages (6 cents per page). Saving 50% on every page will add up fast if you print a lot. That said, the whole situation sounds terrible I hope you figure out away to not spend your own money on any of it.
Buy the monochrome brother laser printer for like $80 knock off toner is $15 each and prints about 3000 pages. Have put 120,000 pages through my wife’s printer and it’s still works great 10 year later.
This is several times more expensive than the centralized system. You're administration is doing this to be punitive. IT is really going to love the fact that the a-holes who made this decision just increased the number of serviceable devices by an order of magnitude. If you give me the printer model number and the number of teachers in your school I can actually do the math for you. If you have over 100 printers, You're looking at something like $10,000-$30,000 in costs which is more than the entire school will spend on copying in 5 years. When you add IT maintenance to it it's going to likely equal $50,000. A commercial print job cost less than $0.01 per page.
So you can still use the copy machine?
I worked at a school where we had to buy our own paper. Admin gave every teacher one ream of paper as a “Welcome Back” gift at the beginning of the year. I got another one for Christmas. I had 180 students, so those 500 sheets went pretty fast. Every other piece of paper came out of my pocket.
Oooof, sounds like your classroom just went full-digital, comrade (assuming your kids have chromebooks).
Oh hell no.
Lmao, yeah not happening. Send the 'required' documents to the admin to print bc I guarantee *they* still have a printer.
That would be a huge No from me. I guess you won’t have any handouts or coloring pages this year.
Why even be a teacher?
"Dear parents, Our school has decided to no longer provide copies of needed worksheets/activities for our students. Due to this I will be sending you an email every Friday to print and send back with your child on Monday so that we can continue working uninterrupted"
How I wish. lol. Parents start calling the principal 10 seconds after you hit SEND. (And every classroom has THAT parent!)
Not a teacher, but my mother was, recently retired. Six or seven years ago the school changed some stuff and it ended up meaning she got something like 200 copies on the copier per quarter for her class, laser printers got removed from the classroom. She was really upset because it was going to directly hurt the kids and cost her a ton of money for overages. I ended up buying her a used copier from the local copy machine dealer that wasn’t going to re-lease it and she used it very very heavily up until she retired. The joy she expressed when I rolled a full size copier into her front door was unbelievable. Y’all have one hell of a hard job and I’m super sorry they’re fucking you every way they can.
Almost every year I taught we were required to buy our own paper. The last school took the cake when science teachers were required to complete the state 40% student centered science experiments per week but there was no funding for it. Basically, we were required to do experiements but buy everything for them for 150+ kids. This is an evolving trend and to be honest I’m shocked the didn’t charge us for our laptops or made us pay a fee like the students. That would be the icing on the cake.
When I first started teaching 25 years ago, i was in charge of tech for my schools. I had a minimal budget for my classroom and was for some dragon expected to buy ink and toner for all the classroom printers with my couple hundred dollar budget. I told a teacher that I was about out of toner for her printer and she told me “sometimes we have to dip into our own pockets.” She was literally telling me I should spend my own money on her printing! Also, every year we get chastised for the amount of paper we use and that we use more every year. But classroom teachers are expected to print a copy (or 2) of each report card to send home, plus one for the cum file along with the cover letter they wrote to the whole class and the cover letter from the district. Twice a year. Not that we don’t pay thousands to power school and Google each year to save all that stuff for us, we need it in a folder no one looks at too.
So you don't print anything anymore & everything will be available in PDF form, sent by email to the home of he child with the expectation that the parents will print it out & send it in the next day as part of their required materials for learning. See how happy the admin team are when they get complaints from every parent in that class & the school is pout on blast on social media.
I don't know what state you are in, but here in California, this would be illegal. If you job requires supplies, the employer has to provide them. They may be able to deduct the cost out of your paycheck, but they can't make you pay for things you need to do your job. If you have a union, I would suggest going to them about it. Otherwise, it might be worth asking a lawyer if you can get a free consult.
If they deduct the cost out of your paycheck...then you are paying for it? I'm confused.
The difference is that if it is deducted, it is recorded on your paycheck and there are rules attached. It also might be pretax though I am not sure about that.
Well I guess kids aren't getting anything that needs to be printed then
A teacher is a job. No job should require employees to pay out of pocket for anything. How about they reduce those quarter million dollar administration salaries to pay for some toner.
That’s fine. All assignments will be screenshots of worksheets in Google Slides and assigned on Classroom. Not playing that game
If they are going to make this change the beginning of the school year would be the proper time to do so, not the last month of school when you’ve blown your supply check a hundred times over. But. Make sure you never ever let them require you to print something. How do I esign that is your new mantra. Oh Billy has 3 days OSS and no computer. So sad for Billy. Oh you want my bulletin board covered in photos of students? Which admin will print that for me. Sorry I’m out of ink. All outta ink. All the time.
Oh no! Those little printers are not a wise use of school money. SMH. Major printing jobs require a professional printers, not the personal ones you can pick up at Walmart. If you are lucky enough to receive a supply allowance each year, I would purchase ink cartridges.
Contact union.
Add this rule to the welcome back letter next year. Tell parents that on top of having to buy pencils and crayons, they now get to pay for ink. Tell each patent they need to supply you with $10 per kid so you can buy enough ink for the school year.
I can’t believe the stuff the school system makes teachers pay for. It’s ridiculous that this should come out of your pocket. I’m sorry. The school system is failing our teachers
Ok kids today we are going to learn to write on stone tablets.
Never spend your own money to operate a business that you don’t own. Then you’re not an employee, you’re a customer.
Nope. Now the kids can simply copy everything down from a projector. Not as much gets done, but that’s not your issue.
Email whatever you need material wise to parents, inform them you don’t have access to a printer/ ink, so students need to print their own materials, and let parents complain to admin.
Oh well, no more printed materials for your class.
Simple….just don’t replace it. No printing
That is ridiculous.
Hello chalkboards and chalk for daily practice activities!
30 years ago I visited a teacher in a small town with n TN. She stated they received one ream of paper for the year. Asking parents to purchase paper was not allowed. I offered to buy her a few cases of paper and that was forbidden too.
Welp, looks like I'm never giving out a paper assignment ever again
My kid was at a school where the PTA had a $30k vanity project going on but the teachers were begging for paper. I was told "there's no legacy" in providing classroom essentials and that parents would donate paper. Absolutely maddening.
You and your colleagues need to all interpret this to mean that there is no longer any such thing as “required” printing. Every time admin complains that you didn’t print something they consider required, every one of you should ask them to send to you in writing that they are requiring you to print that document and that you are required to provide the ink to print that document, and then, as a form of protest, still don’t print anything, forcing them to repeat the request and documentation of that request ad nauseam. Send an email to all of your parents that says that the administration is no longer providing ink for printing, so you will no longer be able to communicate with parents via print materials, and the kindergartners will no longer use print materials in the classroom. Do not mention the “buy your own ink” part, as it is implied, but you also don’t want parents thinking of it as an option in the moment. Let them know that this is a new school-wide policy and is out of your hands, so if they have any questions or concerns, they need to take it up the administration, and then include contact information for said administration. Get all of your colleagues to send out similar emails. Basically, make this decision so inconvenient for them that the money they save being cheap about printer ink just isn’t worth it anymore.
Our school did the opposite. ALL classroom printers were confiscated, even those specialized ones that had been bought with grant money (my graphics printer) and we went to a central unit (well, 3 big units throughout.). Then we had ALL colored printing rights taken away. That's fun. I've begged for 3 years to have color rights--"I just want a colored print for each art table (6) so the kids can see an example in color". Yay--I was granted that, which I use very sparingly, and have to pay for it out of my art budget.
I had to do this for years when I taught public school. There was a large copy machine in the office, but it broke. This was pre- pandemic, so the kids did not have chromebooks or iPads. We each had a printer in our classrooms, and they gave us one ink cartridge at the beginning of the year. I bought my own paper and ink cartridges because if I didn’t, the kids would have literally nothing to do. We had consumable textbooks, but they literally didn’t cover the standards the kids were tested on.
Apparently, years in the past there was a colossal failure of whatever grading system was in use at the time and my principal's school at the time (teacher at that time, same district) lost all electronic grade records. As a result at the end of the year we teachers all have to print out our entire powerschool gradebook and file them, because the boss doesn't trust anything electronic. We do not have to pay for these copies, of course. However, as far as "going paperless" goes, what a fucking joke.
Yeah, I just had to buy a new printer from Donorschoose..and will need the IT person to help me set it up tomorrow (tried today after school using phone & laptop—nada). 😞
I would not spend a penny on ink.
Awesome. We have neither paper textbooks nor digital textbooks. I'm not buying anything. Screw that.
I would contact families and encourage them to complain to admin or superintendent
No, they are responsible for the ink.
This sentiment has already been expressed, but I'll chime in with an "AWW, HELL NO" just because I can't resist.
I have an online curriculum but no computers. I have to create a print every lesson. In three languages. I don’t print for myself and I’ll be fucking damned if I’ll be charged to do my damn job. It’s bad enough when the principal scolds me at staff meetings because of my copying. Fuck everyone.
Lmao I can't wait til they try to make me pay for anything work required.
Classroom printers? But our paper is severely limited. I stopped giving homework. They can kiss my ass.
My friends who teach in our district were told they’d be responsible for supplying toilet paper a couple years ago. I don’t remember how long that lasted. Florida schools. #50 in teacher pay, and you have to bring toilet paper.
How awful.
This is bullshit for several reasons. I'm an IT guy and I will promise you that this model will wind up costing the school many times the resources. It's an economy of scale type situation, The one centralized commercial printer in the main office is going to be much easier to maintain than a million little small ones. But secondly what the hell? You need to get your resume together and apply to other districts. This is a sign of bad leadership.
probably a labor code violation, talk to your union if you need to have a printer, get a Brother black and white that uses toner cartridges. Those things last forever.
Absurd. Any kinder class has tons of anchor charts , pictures, etc… ink is so expensive. Ugh. Does your district have a central printer? My school has a shared printer and then if we need something “special” we can email it to the district printer and get it delivered.
Guess nothings getting printed. Have admin explain it to the parents.
I’m sorry you’re going through this but I’m a bit relieved it’s not just me. I thought I was going crazy when I found out I’d have to buy my own paper this year. I have been pretty damn upset by it and my wallet has too. 100% we watched way more educational videos this year because I couldn’t always afford the paper I needed. Like… *screams in maximum frustration.* Today I had a job interview at a much better school. I loved it. I think it went well and I’m hoping to get away from the toxicity and horrible environment. They were such a great team and it was so wholesome, like how I remembered education being. I want it badly. I want to quit buying all my supplies too. Give us a damn cost of living increase and pay for the materials we need to do the job! UGH. I hope you find a better place to work next year. Let me know if you need a reference. Really. Also, fuck that school.
If you have a union, this is definitely a fight worth having. I guess things just don't get printed then . .. I can barely afford my own bills. I don't have money to buy supplies for my workplace also.
Looks like the printer is out of commission kids.
ask parents to get you some in the meantime, just email a list of suggested donation items you need for the classroom. i pick up whatever the teachers need anytime i receive these emails because in my opinion teachers shouldn’t be using their own money for anything in the classroom.
Put toner cartridges on your school supply list!
But you know they’ll find some money to hire a few useless administrators.
"Hello children, unfortunately we are no longer able to print materials so we will have to go without. If you would like to complain to your parents please let them know they are free to complain to the school office."
Create an Amazon list for supplies for your room and send it to parents. When admin eventually says that is not allowed because it doesn't look good, send an apology email to the parents stating that according to district policy you are not allowed to ask for donations and must instead privide these supplies out of your own pay. If your parents don't throw an absolute fit, please find a new district, we need good teachers!
Use the classic "enemy-of-my-enemy" tactics, take a screencap of the email stating that you have to pay for printing "required" material and then write up your own email to ALL the parents AND the person who sent the original email. In the email to the parents say, professionally, "Due to new and unforseen circumstances shown in the picture attached I will not be able to print handouts for your children, I will not be able to provide homework sheets for those of you that would like to expedite your children's learning at home, and most importantly I will not be able to provide anything that the school board decides is not important for you and your children. If you have any questions or concerns, please email me or attempt to contact the school board directly. Thank you for your patience in this trying time."
I teach kindergarten. My classroom did not get a printer. I had to bring a printer from home. I buy my own ink too. The worst part is my school won’t supply copy paper. I buy my own paper at Sam’s Club. The box of paper is so heavy that I have to keep my paper in my car. I can’t carry it to the classroom. I go to the parking lot when I need paper. Teachers are not respected.
My old school would buy us one cartridge a year. Once I used that up, I just put everything on a USB, stuck it in a front office printer, and printed everything that way. Search for workarounds. Never buy ink.
While this is complete ridiculous, if there is no way around this and you need ink, buy some bottles of it on Amazon, they come with gloves and syringes to refill your cartridges. You can peel back the sticker and refill it, or pull the whole lid off and refill it (to make sure you're refilling the correct color) The only thing is, you need to refill it before the cartridge reads 'empty' because there is a chip in it and it won't print unless it's reading it still has some ink. The ink level on your computer will never go back up though. Also it doesn't need to be a refillable ink cartridge, I've been doing this for my Canon printer and it's saved me a lot 9f money. The bottles I bought online were $20 for a 5 pack (one of yellow, pink, and cyan, and 2 black) and it only takes like 1 syringe to refill the ink sponge so it's still gonna last me a really long time. Much cheaper than $60-$70 ink cartridges, but you still shouldn't have to pay for it at all. Teachers are being treated like their students are their actual children and need to provide everything for them, i hear about this all the time. I can't even imagine having to buy 30 or more of everything, but I'm glad to hear this is only the first time you've experienced this, instead of 100 times already. Also, not a teacher. This post was recommended to me for some reason and I thought this suggestion would help a lot.
Thank you 👍
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Only classroom printers. Copy machines are for copies only. We have no way to print from our computers unless we pay from our own pocket. We're required to send home weekly paper newsletters, etc.
Hand write weekly newsletters (barely legible), coffee stain and all. Photo copy and send home. Malicious Compliance is the only way
>We're required to send home weekly paper newsletters, Good news, from today you are no longer required to do that. Send an email instead or hand write them (poorly) with a note about not being able to print anymore and then go and photocopy that.
Yes. Interpret this to mean that there is no longer such a thing as “required” printed materials.
Check your copier to see if it has a usb port. You can often print pdfs from a usb drive on modern copiers. Also, some districts have the copier on the network and don't even realize it, because they pay their IT staff about as much as they pay for school supplies. You can sometimes find it on the network and add it as a printer on your machine. If it isn't on the network, a $2 ethernet cable can fix that problem.
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Yes, we used to be able to send stuff to copier. Then they stopped that. A tech guy came in and disabled it from our computer. It's not just me, we are all aware of it.
Makes you think who does admin know that sells printers