I don't doubt the huge figure, the 96%, but I also doubt that many do something like that consistently. I'd bet that most of them did something once or twice and with that they can say "have had to personally pay..." It could very well have been their own fault for forgetting to order supplies or not enough of them. I guess loaning a kid a pencil could qualify, huh?

I have three teachers in my family and one, a music therapy teacher, said she has used her own supplies such as sheet music or CDs, but only b/c she wanted to incorporate them into the lesson, not that she HAD to. My sister was a coach and I doubt she ever bought anything w/ her own money, even though she made a pretty good salary b/c of her master's degree.   The other is an elementary school teacher and she's never mentioned having to buy supplies out of her own pocket. To be fair, none of them taught or teach in some impoverished inner city school.

I don't think the lack of money is why our education system is in shambles, but rather that leftists are in charge of the schools and they would rather spend the money on foolish things instead of where it matters. It also didn't help when the feds wrested away control from local school districts.   I know that the quality of the cafeteria food suffered after that.