While teachers don’t get paid a high salary, they do get some pretty neat discounts!  Over the past several months, I’ve been able to get some discounts showing my substitute teaching credential or Student ID from grad school.  I’ll go over some of the best and worst discounts I’ve come across so far:

Worst: Clothing Retailers

Of all the discounts I was looking forward to, this one was at the top of my list, which is probably why this turned out to be the worst discounts because I had such high expectations.  Armed with my substitute teaching credential, I headed out to a local mall, looking for some new pieces to add to my wardrobe.  First disappointment, Ann Taylor.  Although I had seen some bloggers mention a 15% discount for teachers at Ann Taylor, I was told by a store associate that they discontinued this promotion.  After striking out there, I headed to Talbots, where things were slightly better.  Talbots offered a 15% discount for teachers, but only for full-priced items.  For my shopping style, I usually comb through the sale and clearance section, which makes for a very eclectic closet collection.  Also, I couldn’t find anything officially from Talbots online about an educator discount, so it’s possible they discontinued that program as well.  Finally, I browsed through some pieces at a J Crew Factory store that were on sale, and I was delighted at the cash register to find out that I could stack my teacher discount on top of that!  Their online site also appears to have verification available for both students and teachers to access discounts doing online shopping, so that’s also a win!

Better: Technology

Since I decided to take an all-digital approach to studying in grad school, I started looking into the Apple Pencil to take digital notes, rather than use paper notebooks.  My old iPad wasn’t compatible with the latest Apple Pencil so I decided to put my teacher discount to the test at Apple and it worked!  Apple extends the same education discount to both students and teachers, and for the new school year, I’m eyeing a new Macbook Air, though still deciding how much life is left in my Macbook Pros from 2015.  Since I’ve gotten a battery service notification, my laptop’s days may be numbered. 

Best: News Media

Every once in a while, my husband and I review our monthly recurring expenses, and I was shocked to see that over the course of a year, we were spending about $950 on subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the San Jose Mercury News.  Since becoming a student again to get my Masters in Education, I’ve been able to cut this expense significantly!  For example, the Wall Street Journal for students is only $24 / year, the Washington Post for students is $12 / year and I got free access to the New York Times through my school!  San Jose Mercury News for students is $12 / year, so I’ve been able to cut our spend down to $48 a year on news subscriptions.  This discovery definitely had me doing the happy dance!

Too Good to be True: Housing?

While chatting with one of my professors about why it’s hard for teachers here in the Bay Area, the number one hot button issue for new teachers is paying rent!  As part of my teacher credential program, I need to give up substitute teaching to begin an apprenticeship that starts 4 days a week and eventually, 5 days.  As a student teacher, I have the benefit of partnering with a mentor teacher, but this apprenticeship is unpaid.  For some of my classmates, this apprenticeship route is not economically feasible, as they have families to support and rent to pay.  Even beyond this program in graduate school, I’ve been wondering how teachers afford to live in the Bay Area, where the median home price is over $3M in Palo Alto and average monthly rent is $4,600.  I started looking at resources available to educators for what represents for some the highest portion of their fixed monthly expenses, and found that the Santa Clara County – Office of Education has a number of different resources available!  On this Housing Resources for Educators site, there are guides containing programs for special discounts on mortgage rates and home buying closing costs, as well as listings for properties especially set aside by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Good Neighbor Next Door Program.  Although I did not find any listings for homes in the Bay Area, I did find some information about a proposed new development in Palo Alto at 231 Grant that will offer 110 apartments to educators, supported by Meta, the County of Santa Clara and the City of Palo Alto.  The site is conveniently located near the Oregon Expressway and could serve as an important lifeline to educators in Santa Clara County.  For more information on how many units will be allocated to which school districts, check out the news release here.  I’m excited that this project appears to have broad community support and hope the construction gets completed in a timely manner so teachers who can’t afford to live in this area don’t need to commute as far.