'I pray ... for the day when teachers do not have to beg for help:' Teachers turn to GoFundMe for PPE supplies amid pandemic
Teachers paying for school supplies is a reality most teachers in the U.S. face. Even pre-pandemic, 94% of U.S. teachers paid for school supplies out of their own pockets, according to a Department of Education survey.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic is stretching U.S. educators to their limits and forcing them to use their own money not just for pens and markers but for masks, hand sanitizers, wipes, and other supplies they need to keep themselves and their students safe.
This harsh reality has led teachers around the country to turn to the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to raise the money for potentially life-saving supplies. According to the fundraising platform, hundreds of teachers from all 50 states are using the site to outfit classrooms with PPE, purchase hand-washing stations and air purifiers, and deliver school supplies to students' homes to ensure a safe learning environment.
Knowing the importance of hand-washing when it comes to preventing the spread of COVID-19, third-grade teacher Annette Fernandez requested a sink in her classroom, but her district could not afford it.
Fernandez, who teaches at Turie T. Small Elementary School in Daytona Beach, Fla., admits that the notion of using a platform like GoFundMe never crossed her mind.
“My daughter suggested, ‘Why don’t you do a GoFundMe?’ I had never done it. I’m like, okay, I wanted [a sink] I just really needed to feel like I can at least have the kids wash their hands.”
“I just put in the cost of one sink and if it was met in two hours ... I could not believe that it spread so fast.”
To date, Fernandez’s GoFundMe has raised more than $4,200. Fernandez was able to purchase not one sink but two, and she was also able to buy other crucial supplies for her classroom.
Tennessee middle-school teacher Marilynn Smith Newman started her GoFundMe campaign when the state said that the virus-related lockdowns left the state strapped for money and the state-provided PPE supplies were not enough.
“Our state provided us with one gallon of hand sanitizer and one squirt bottle, 5 sock heel masks treated with silverdur chemical, and a plastic visor,” she said. “We got five reusable masks. I did the candle test with it and was able to blow out the candle. Then they gave us two boxes of disposable masks to give out to the students — one per day; however, students are not required to wear masks.”
“I pray every day for all to return safely to the classroom and for the day when teachers do not have to beg for help,” said Smith Newman, who has raised $230 of her $1,000 goal to date.
‘To shell out money right at the start of the school year is difficult’
Antoinette Blaustein, a math teacher in New Jersey’s North Hunterdon Voorhees Regional High School District, started her campaign when the district told staff it would not be supplying teachers with masks or any form of PPE upon return to school.
“The district didn’t have the resources to provide us with any PPE. When I found out about that, the first thing that I thought of was okay, so that means we’re going to have to buy our own supplies, which you know, to buy a mask … is not a big deal, but we’re going to be in the classroom five days a week ... There’s going to be about 500 kids in our building at any given day. So that, to me, required more extensive supplies,” she said.
Blaustein says that once her school superintendent heard that she started her own crowdfunding efforts, he was able to secure masks from a nearby medical center; however, the masks would not be available until after the start of the school year.
“Our teachers don’t get paid over the summer. So to shell out money right at the start of the school year is difficult for us,” she said.
‘Everyone’s in this together’
Alisha Shapcott, a librarian at Liberty Elementary school in Scottsdale, Arizona, knew that the pandemic was going to hamper students’ abilities to check out books safely.
“I need to quarantine them for 72 hours to make sure they are safe before I can turn around and pass them out to another student,” she said. Shapcott wanted to shorten the book quarantine time and found a UV sanitizer that could do up to six books in 30 seconds — except it cost more than $4,300. So she turned to GoFundMe. She’s currently raised more almost $1,600.
“I have two children of my own, and I would want this level of sterilization for books that they would read,” she said.
Becca Lehr is an instructional math coach at Overbrook Educational Center in Philadelphia, which serves all the city’s K-8 blind and visually impaired students, which make up a third of the school’s population.
Lehr tells Yahoo Finance that Philadelphia is currently engaging in 100% virtual learning, which presents a specific set of challenges for many of her students with special needs.
“The challenges for visually impaired students are the contrast of colors and ... small print. For students that are completely blind they can’t utilize the Zoom or Google Meet,” she explained.
Lehr said that her school turned to GoFundMe in order to purchase document cameras so teachers have the ability to scan notes at home and project them for the students to see on their own home computers.
Being able to see a teacher’s handwriting is essential in the development of reading skills for younger students, she said, noting that the document cameras also allow the teachers to write and share notes with students.
However, they cost around $200 to $250 each. Lehr is happy to share with Yahoo Finance that her school exceeded its $5,000 goal.
“What’s inspired me and given me hope is the fact that the teachers that I’m working with are doing everything possible to meet the needs of their students. ... Everyone’s in this together,” she said.
Reggie Wade is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieWade.
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