Two months into the school year, Tye Haynes has already spent over $600 of his personal money on school supplies for his students at Booker T. Washington Senior High School in Overtown.

“I need paper, I need ink, I need tissues, I need napkins. ... It's just a lot of little things that you consistently always need to buy all the time,” he said. “So over time, it becomes very costly.”

Haynes, who teaches World History and AP Human Geography, expects to spend even more as the year goes on. Every year, he said, he spends over $1,000 out of pocket on school supplies.

His case is far from isolated. During the 2024-25 school year, K-12 teachers in Florida spent an average of $904 out of pocket on school supplies for their students, slightly more than the national average of $895. That’s accor

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