A blog article posted by the union-funded Economic Policy Institute in August carried the title “It’s the beginning of the school year and teachers are once again opening up their wallets to buy school supplies.”

The article cited a federally funded survey of teachers that reported the average Michigan teacher spends $628 a year on school supplies and is not reimbursed for that expense. Only teachers in California claimed to have spent more ($664).

This report is not consistent with what Michigan school districts report about their practices in this area.

School districts across the state are giving school employees pre-paid “purchase cards” to buy classroom supplies, despite claims from unions and others that these expenses are coming out teachers’ own pockets.

State law is clear on this point. The Michigan Supreme Court and the Michigan Department of Education have both affirmed that the state constitution mandates that school districts, not school employees, are responsible for providing materials deemed essential for teaching.

The Michigan Department of Education lists specific examples of what is considered “essential,” including pencils, paper, crayons, scissors, glue sticks and text books.

The Midland Public School District distributed around 560 pre-paid purchase cards to its 868 full-time employees.

The district reported online that one of the cards had a purchase limit of $300,000, but Superintendent Michael Sharrow told Michigan Capitol Confidential that this is not accurate. He said the district uses the cards in place of purchase orders for any vendor who will accept them. This system, he added, allows the district to earn rebates on some purchases.

Other recipients of the Midland district cards are teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators, whose cards vary in value.

For example, 29 employees at one Midland middle school were given cards, including one with a $1,500 purchase limit for a first-grade teacher, a $4,240 card for the president of the district’s Parent-Teacher Organization — who is also a consultant to the district — and a $25,000 card for the principal.

Sharrow said the district has a policy for how the cards may be used, but that this depends on the specific request.

Sharrow said all requests to purchase supplies are reviewed and if approved, the money is placed on the card.

He said the school district has budgeted a set amount for supplies for classrooms, and principals decide how much may be spent by their schools’ employees.

For example, the superintendent said that an art teacher would have a different spending cap than a physical education teacher, with the amounts for each determined on a case-by-case basis.

“We are very fiscally conservative so we do not approve without a rationale,” Sharrow said.

The cards are used to avoid the district having to reimburse employees for classroom supply purchases.

A teacher from another district said on a social media outlet that teachers pay for a variety of things on their own: whiteboard markers, construction paper, rulers, markers, calculators, Kleenex, disinfectants, colored pencils, chart paper, colored printer paper, folders, binders, thumb drives and white boards.

However, Sharrow said that at Midland schools, the district itself pays for all those items.

“But, if [teachers] use them and need more above the total budget allotted, most likely they purchase out of their own pocket,” Sharrow said in an email. “Do teachers purchase supplies well above the budgeted amount out of their own pocket? Yes, for sure. Nearly all of us do.”

The Detroit Public Schools Community District receives more money on a per-student basis for its General Fund operations budget than the school district that serves the much wealthier community of West Bloomfield.

The per-pupil funding figures are available in Michigan Department of Education databases and memos. The difference is caused by need-based federal funding that the Detroit district gets due to a large percentage of its students being economically disadvantaged.

For example, Detroit received about $13,841 per student for its General Fund operations budget (local, state and federal dollars) in 2017-18, the most recent year data is available. The comparable number for West Bloomfield was $11,636 per student.

In 2017-18, Detroit received $2,684 per pupil in federal money while West Bloomfield received just $379 per pupil.

That gave Detroit a $2,305 per-pupil advantage in federal funding.

The federal government provides the state of Michigan with about $1.7 billion for education purposes every year, most of which is used for grants to school districts that serve poor communities.

Federal assistance to such districts is relatively stable, and with nearly 20% of Detroit’s General Fund revenue coming from this source, it is clearly a vital component of school budgets.

Yet, educational research organizations often do not include federal dollars when they analyze funding for public schools.

The most recent example is a recent report from the Education Trust-Midwest.

It claimed that “Michigan’s school finance system limits opportunity for children from low-income and rural communities.”

The organization did not incorporate federal funding into its analysis, leaving out the $1.7 billion in federal money the state receives.

“This report focused on dollars directly under the control of Michigan leaders – the state and local tax dollars that make up the vast majority of public school funding,” said Mary Grech, senior data and policy analyst at Education Trust-Midwest, in an email. “Our analysis showed that Michigan is among the worst states in the nation for the gap in funding between higher- and lower- poverty districts.”

Education Trust-Midwest is not alone in excluding federal dollars when it talks about the money available to school districts in poorer communities.

A nonprofit called EdBuild released a report last year, claiming school districts from poorer Michigan communities received less funding than those in wealthier ones.

Matt Richmond, chief programs officer of EdBuild, said federal funding was not included in the analysis because if it were, that would let state off the hook.

Richmond said it was the state’s responsibility to provide equitable funding with its own resources and not rely on the federal government to make up any gap.

A large part of the federal aid school districts like Detroit get comes from a program called Title I, Part A. The money comes in grants that school districts can use to pay for core expenses, including the largest expense, teacher salaries. This lets schools dedicate more money from state and local revenue sources to support school operations.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District will get $103.9 million in Title I, Part A grant funding in the current fiscal year while West Bloomfield Schools will get $355,582.

Title I, Part A funding breaks down into $2,047 per pupil for Detroit and $65 per pupil for West Bloomfield.