[jlbooker]

> all teachers are represented by a union that negotiates on their behalf

No, this is not true. Some teachers are represented by unions. In our state (North Carolina), public employees are prohibited by law from organizing into unions and cannot strike.

There is a "teacher's association" that lobbies on their behalf, but the republican-controlled legislature pretty much ignores the association. Without the option the strike, the association is pretty much powerless. They publish opinions and give feedback about what they'd prefer to have happen, but they have no leverage to actually make any changes.

The money spent out-of-pocket is not just decorations and sidewalk chalk. It's pencils, paper, erasers, folders, name tags, cleaning supplies, sticky notes, pencil sharpeners, "prize box" rewards (because you have to have a behavior reward system, it works wonders at practical level for elementary students). It's all of the practical things that make a classroom function on a day-to-day basis. Heck, sometimes they'd run out of paper for the copy machine and we'd buy a few reems just so she could have a particular activity the next day.