Teachers buying school supplies out of pocket get creative

BROOKFIELD -- With school starting in about a week teachers are scrambling to places like The Learning Shop, with a long list, and not a lot of money. That's why they're using technology to fill in the gaps.

Lisa Blake is one of those teachers, \"There is a lot of out of pocket expense. Before school starts we spend upwards of one to two hundred dollars to get our classrooms started.\"

Teachers say as curriculum becomes more demanding and state budgets shrink, the burden is falling on their shoulders.

Blake says, \"I think a lot of us have had a little dip in our wages. There has not been many pay increases, so it gets harder every year to dip into our pockets for some of that.\"

Retired teacher Joann Marten works at The Learning Shop and hears the grumbles from teachers first hand.

\"A lot of times you ask them if they want a duplicate receipt and a lot of times they say there is no one to turn a receipt into.\"

But there are some tools teachers are using to make up the difference. Tools like DonorsChoose.org, where underfunded schools post a project and people donate.

ClassWish helps teachers get school supplies donated and GivingGetting matches you with a donor who has the same item a teacher is looking for.

All these websites are helping teachers fill in the gap.