Teachers have a reputation for going above and beyond for their students. And that generosity extends to their pocketbooks as well.
Due to shrinking or already inadequate budgets (or perhaps because there’s just too much red tape to ask for reimbursement), many teachers reach for their own money when it comes to purchasing school supplies and other classroom resources. In fact, The Journal reported that during the 2009-2010 school year, public school teachers spent about $1.33 billion out of pocket on such expenditures. That’s $356 per teacher on average.
Thankfully, nonprofits such as DonorsChoose.org allows teachers to crowdsource their school supplies and projects. There’s also a new site called ClassWallet.com that takes this concept even further.
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ClassWallet lets teachers raise, track and spend classroom money via an online e-wallet account. According to the startup’s website, when teachers create their ClassWallet page, parents, administrators and foundations can easily donate, transfer, distribute and deposit funds to these teachers electronically.
And instead of spending their own money and submitting receipts and paperwork in hopes of reimbursement, teachers can just deduct it from their ClassWallet account that’s linked to the school. Since all this is done online, all transactions are fully transparent and trackable.
As TechCrunch reports, founder and edtech entrepreneur Jamie Rosenberg saw a need for this app after he noticed how much of a headache it was for teachers to manage and keep track of classroom cash, whether it be for school supplies or field trips.
ClassWallet hopes that by helping educators spend less time worrying about money, they can devote more time educating students instead.
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