Local teacher organizations support proposed tax deduction

Representatives with local teacher organizations say new proposed legislation would be beneficial, but not fix everything they need.

Legislation making its way through both the Missouri Senate and the Missouri House of Representatives would allow educators at public, private and religious schools to deduct up to $500 of the unreimbursed money they spend on classroom supplies, such as books, computer software and other miscellaneous supplies.

Senate Bill 583, proposed by Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, matches with House Bill 1338 proposed by Rep. Ann Kelley, R-127.

Karmen Carson, Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) representative with the R-I school district, thinks the bill is a good start and would be a step toward showing teachers that they’re valued.

“It wouldn’t fix everything,” she said. “It would show that the House realizes we spend quite a bit of our own money on our classrooms.”

Carson said how much a teacher spends on their classroom and supplies changes based on the person. As a teacher at O’Neal Elementary School, she said she likes to have her classroom feel homey for the students.

“I feel like kids are there a big chunk of their day,” she said. “I like them to feel like it’s a place you want to be. I have lamps and I have a futon and I have flexible seating. For somebody like me, that ($500) is nice because I do spend quite a bit in my classroom.”

Currently, educators can deduct up to $250 from their federal income taxes to cover the out-of-pocket cost of school supplies.

Melissa Gargac, MSTA president at Naylor R-II, said that $250 can be a low number compared to what some teachers spend.

“We spend a lot,” she said. “Honestly, $250 is pennies compared to what we spend monthly, weekly. We spend a lot of money out of our own pockets. I would definitely be in favor of this legislation.”

She agreed some teachers who currently don’t spend as much out of their own pocket for classroom supplies could be more likely to if the $500 tax credit were in place.

“There definitely are some that do more than others,” she said.

“I’m definitely in favor of it, any teacher would be,” Gargac said. “We all get money at the beginning of the year, we turn in our (forms) to order things, but there’s little things that come up during the year that we spend out of pocket, we don’t turn in at the beginning of the year, that we need for the kids.”

Matt Michelson, speaking for the Missouri State Teachers Association, said his organization has been focused on the issue of recruiting and retaining teachers recently and indicated research shows two main barriers: salary and administrative support.

“I think this bill would really be a good step — not a magic bullet, obviously — but something to say we support our teachers and work on some of those recruitment and retention issues,” Michelson said.

Legislative analysts estimated that when fully implemented, this bill would result in up to a $1.8 million loss in state revenue. Arthur, a former middle school teacher, said the tax break is a worthy reason for the revenue loss.

“I think we all would like to see an increase in funding for teachers’ salaries but recognize that limitations in our budget make that difficult,” Arthur said. “So this is just a very modest proposal that would allow teachers the opportunity to keep more of their hard-earned dollars.”

Multiple other organizations voiced support for the bill, including the Missouri Charter Public School Association, the Missouri National Education Association, the Missouri School Counselor Association and the Missouri School Boards’ Association. No one testified against the bill.

(The Missouri News Network contributed to this report.)