Teachers Spending $175 Million of Their Own Money to Keep Classrooms Running

Australian public school teachers are spending more than $175 million of their own money each year on basic classroom supplies, exposing the personal impact of chronic underfunding of public schools.

86 per cent of teachers are using their own money to purchase supplies for their classrooms, spending an average of almost $1,000 each year. Nationally, this amounts to nearly $177 million annually, with teachers in primary, special and very remote schools spending even more.

The figures come from the AEU’s 2025 State of Our Schools survey of more than 10,000 public school teachers.

“We’re not talking about nice-to-haves or personal touches. Teachers are paying for basic items like stationery, books, classroom equipment, and materials to support individual students. These are critical items necessary for teachers to do their jobs properly, but they have been forced to pay for them out of their own pockets,” AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said.

The survey shows teachers are most commonly paying for stationery and classroom equipment, as well as items to support individual students and library resources. Teachers in remote areas face the highest average out-of-pocket costs.

“Teachers do this because they care deeply about their students, but their goodwill is being exploited. When more than 85 per cent of public school teachers are spending nearly $1,000 a year of their own money, that’s not generosity, that’s a system failure,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“This is especially unfair when teachers in under-resourced and remote schools are spending even more. The teachers who are already working in the toughest conditions are being asked to carry the greatest financial burden.”

With the new bilateral funding agreements that have been struck between the commonwealth and state and territory governments, the responsibility sits firmly with governments to get this funding into schools as soon as possible.

“Governments must prioritise the delivery of this much needed resource to public schools so that teachers aren’t forced to choose between their own household budgets and their students’ learning. And in the case of Victoria where there is no full funding agreement, the state government must step up urgently and commit to a full 75% share of the Schooling Resource Standard to ensure full funding is delivered to Victorian public schools,” Ms Haythorpe said.

National Results  
• 86.4% of teachers said that they spend their own money on classroom supplies at an average of $988.18 each
• Averaged across the country this equals $176,976,760 in total per year
• Primary school teachers spend the most on average ($1,047 each) followed by Special School teachers ($1,013 each) 
• Teachers in very remote schools spend an average of $1,197 each
• Teachers whose schools are in the middle band of socio-economic status spend more ($1,212 each) than teachers in whose schools are in low SES ($949 each) or high SES areas ($768 each)
• Teachers in self-described “under resourced” schools  spend an average of $1,119 each, compared to $660 for teachers in “adequately resourced” schools

What do Teachers Spend Their Money On?   
Teachers were asked to select items that they spent their own money on.
• 85.2% of teachers bought stationery
• 84.2% bought classroom equipment
• 51.5% bought items to support individual students 
• 37.9% bought library textbooks or library resources 
• 16.3% bought sports or play equipment
• 5.7% said for study trips or excursions.