What does it mean that students have to start purchasing products for classes they are not even teaching yet? Taking into consideration that funding is so low shows they have to start building up their materials like: books, dvds, activities and games long before they get their first teaching job. What does that say to people pursuing this field of work?

The SMSU club, Education Minnesota Student Program also known as EMSP, last week put on a book fair that many of us can recall from our childhood. This year, like many years before, the EMSP sponsored a Scholastic book fair at the Academic Commons not unlike the ones of our early childhoods. The event, besides raising money, allows students who are pursuing an education degree to start building their libraries up.

According to an article by, Maria Durand of ABC, millions of teachers across the country spend their own money on supplies once bought by the school. Most people may think they may be only spending a few dollars of their own money, but according to the Journal a survey done by National School Supply and Equipment Association (NSSEA), over 1.3 billion dollars was spent by teachers on out of pocket expenses in a year, which ends up averaging a $1,000 per teacher on a given year.

Every year the amount teachers spend out of their own money for students raises and classes’ room sizes get larger. But to a lot of education majors like Miranda Krause, a freshman at SMSU, she shared what she felt about those daunting statistics:

“It doesn’t daunt me, I love kids so much, supporting my kids is the most important thing.”