Just how much supplies does it take to teach reading, english, math, geography and history? As for the sciences, perhaps a little extra is needed, but it's my contention that these fools waste more money than you and I could ever imagine.
In California, in some cases we spend over 1/3rd of the education budget in k-12 on the children of illegal immigrants. Funny how I don't hear teachers lamenting that.
I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that this is a serious, real question and not just one out there to bust chops.
I teach special education reading--I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars over my years--mostly on books. For a child to be successful in reading the material must be on their level. When I have 8th graders reading at a 3rd grade (or lower) level, I cannot and will not hand them a 3rd grade basal reader and say go at it. It is insulting and embarrassing for them to carry that around. I spend money on "hi-lo" readers, Higher age--lower level. They cost 5-6 bucks each. A proper leveled library should have an absolute minimum of 250 books. 500 is much better. This is for fiction. When one tosses in non-fiction requirements, the demand triples.
I am fortunate that my school district gives me about $800 a year. It will be spent before school even starts on new books and replacing lost/stolen/ruined books. Yes, I do have a check out system, but if a kid takes a book and doesn't return it, I don't have a whole lot of recourse. I try my best to keep an eye on that, but it's going to happen.
Yes, I go to the public library and check out books, but that is some risky because if one of my students' takes the book and loses it, I'm the one on the hook.
This is my experience in this subject area. This does not include the times that I've paid for a kids lunch on a field trip, paid for a dance, loaned small amounts of money for kids to buy pencils, paper, etc at the school store. But so what? I bet you all loan small amounts of money to co workers --part of the job sometimes.
But I don't do it because I get a tax break. If I get one, that's great, if not, I do it anyway because this is what good teachers do. But --------- my bil is a mechanic. He sure gets to write off all the eq he buys for his job. Fair is fair.