Stephen Colbert, popular comedian, TV personality, and South Carolina native donated $800,000 to his home state's public schools to help over 800 teachers in 375 schools who had asked for aid through the site DonorsChoose.org.

According to New York Daily News, he "partnered with the charity The Morgridge Family Foundation and the technology distributor ScanSource, which 'generously matched' funds."

The donation will be used for classroom supplies, uniforms, and simply "items some districts cannot afford, state schools Superintendent Molly Spearman said," according to the article.

ThinkProgress.org discussed the fact that many teachers are having to rely on "nonprofits, foundations, businesses looking for good press, and hopefully, some very generous celebrity" for classroom supplies because of education budgets not gaining more funding after significant cuts during the recession.

"When the [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities] last updated their numbers in October of last year, it found that although most states increased funding from last year, 30 of the 47 states analyzed were still spending less per student than before the recession and 14 states had 10 percent less funding than pre-recession levels," the site said.

The site further noted that in the 2012-13 school year, "over half of students from kindergarten through 12th grade...qualified for school lunch programs, meaning that the majority of public school students are poor and likely to need more assistance from educators to take part in activities that aren't provided at home."

In other words, according to ThinkProgress.org, there is a greater need for school supplies but a budget that is lacking the room to provide, resulting in a situation like 800 teachers in a state turning to crowdfunding for help.

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

05/08/2015