Web donors help teachers help students
(AP) — Julie Porter's kindergarten class at Adams Elementary School in Fort Wayne has a new love seat with cushions, a couple of chairs and a little table.
Backed by high-profile celebrities including Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and actor Ashton Kutcher, the website encourages teachers to post their needs, big or small, and wait for someone or some organization to finance it.
On March 10, Porter's $348 project and all other Hoosier teacher requests on the website were flash funded by the Herbert Simon Family Foundation and the Indiana Pacers Foundation, both in Indianapolis, as part of a #BestSchoolDay national event at Donors Choose.
Paying for books, classroom furniture and technology, among other things, helps teachers who might otherwise spend their own money on classroom supplies or extras.
The website states that teachers in more than two-thirds of all public schools in America have made project requests and more than 2 million people have donated $400 million.
The help comes at a good time for teachers.
Since 2011, when state right-to-work laws went into effect, teachers have not had the standard incremental - or "step" - raises they were used to.
In 2005 the average annual salary of teachers and other workers in the educational system, such as bus drivers, food service workers, substitute teachers and teacher's aides, was $37,733 in Allen County.
Towles Montessori School teacher Diana Crisler continues to dip into her own pocket for many things, including food she buys to teach students how to cook.