A new AFT survey finds more than 40% of respondents have a second job, while many are also spending hundreds of dollars of their own money on classroom supplies and food.
For thousands of public school teachers, the school day does not necessarily end when the final bell rings.
A new national survey of more than 2,000 teachers found that more than 40 percent are working a second job, while many are also spending hundreds of dollars of their own money on classroom supplies and food for students.
The findings arrive as teachers return to classrooms amid rising living costs, continuing concerns about school funding and growing pressure over what educators can teach and say in their classrooms.
The American Federation of Teachers released the survey this week after polling 2,112 K through 12 members between Aug. 13 and Aug. 24. Nearly two thirds of respondents rated their weekly stress at seven or higher on a scale of one to 10. Thirty one percent said they were likely to leave teaching within the next year. Only 36 percent said they would recommend their job to their own children.
The financial pressure was particularly striking.
More than 40 percent of teachers surveyed said they have a side job. The figure was 42 percent among Latino educators, compared with 39 percent among white educators and 58 percent among Black educators.
Nearly half said they expect to spend as much as $300 of their own money on classroom supplies this school year. When higher spending levels were included, 76 percent expected to spend as much as $600.
About half also said they expect to purchase food or snacks for students.
For teachers in Los Angeles, the findings raise a particularly important question: how much of the national affordability problem is showing up inside the region’s classrooms?
Los Angeles Unified employs more than 24,000 teachers, including 22,708 K through 12 teachers, according to district figures from July 2026. The district serves nearly 575,000 students and operates more than 1,190 schools and educational centers.
The district’s current budget includes $4.3 billion for certificated salaries and $757.5 million for books and supplies across the general fund. Those figures demonstrate that substantial resources are being devoted to personnel and materials, but they do not tell us how much individual teachers are spending from their own paychecks or whether classroom needs are being met at every school.
That distinction matters.
Teachers buying supplies for their classrooms can be a sign of commitment to their students. It can also signal that educators believe their schools lack something they need to do their jobs.
The new survey suggests the problem is widespread. Teachers described purchasing basic instructional materials as well as food for students, while others said the rising cost of living was making it increasingly difficult to remain in the profession.
One teacher surveyed by the AFT said she could make more money working as a pet sitter. Another said rent consumed more than half of her income and had pushed her into credit card debt.
The survey also comes after a contentious year for Los Angeles teachers.
Los Angeles Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles spent more than a year negotiating a new labor agreement. The district said its proposals included salary increases, smaller class sizes and lower counseling ratios. The district and its labor partners ultimately ratified agreements in June.
The union, however, has continued to argue that compensation and working conditions are contributing to a teacher retention problem.
In a 2026 strike media guide, UTLA said 30 percent of LAUSD educators have a second job to make ends meet and claimed that 35 percent leave the district within five years because of pay and working conditions. The union also said more than 700 classroom positions were not filled by a permanent teacher during the 2024 to 2025 school year. Those are union supplied figures and should be distinguished from independently conducted survey data.
The new AFT survey provides another measure of the pressure, but it comes with an important limitation. It surveyed AFT members rather than a representative sample of every teacher in the country. Respondents were also predominantly white and politically Democratic. The survey was conducted by Grow Progress and weighted to K through 12 AFT teachers.
Still, the numbers point to a problem that is difficult to ignore: many teachers are supplementing their income while simultaneously supplementing their schools.
That burden may be especially significant in Los Angeles, where the cost of housing and other necessities can put pressure on even relatively stable professional incomes.
And the issue goes beyond teachers’ personal finances.
When an educator spends hundreds of dollars on pencils, books, art supplies, instructional materials or food, the immediate beneficiary is often a student. But the long term question is who should be responsible for providing those necessities.
The answer has implications for the quality of education, teacher retention and the ability of schools to attract new educators.
The AFT survey found that stress and lack of support were among the leading reasons teachers who were considering leaving cited for their decision. Rising living costs, workload and pay were also major concerns.
For Los Angeles, the next question is not simply whether teachers are stressed.
It is whether a profession that increasingly requires educators to work beyond the classroom just to make ends meet can continue to retain the people students depend on.
As another school year begins, teachers are being asked to provide more.
The emerging question is how much longer they can afford to do it.
