Oklahoma teacher Teresa Danks recently made national news when she began panhandling beside the highway to raise money for school supplies.
On average, American teachers spend $500 a year of their own money on school supplies for their students, but that number can be much higher in states like cash-strapped Oklahoma. American teachers are currently eligible for a small tax break of $250, to reimburse themselves.
But, as The Washington Post reports, under the new Republican tax plan, that reimbursement would be eliminated. The news of the lost tax deduction was met with an outcry from teacher unions.
Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, said, “As educators spend more and more of their own funds each year to buy basic essentials, Republican leaders [have chosen]to ignore the sacrifice made by those who work in our nation’s public schools.”