In a season-one episode of “Abbott Elementary,” second-grade teacher Janine Teagues attempts to get the school supplies her class needs by promoting her digital Amazon wishlist on social media. Within the first 30 seconds of the episode, she states to the camera bluntly that teachers sometimes have no other choice.
“The city doesn’t always give us the funding we need for our supplies — I know I keep saying that, but it keeps being true,” she explains. “It’s not like we have nothing: we clip old pictures out of magazines from the barbershop down the street.”
The optimism is meant to sound naive, but the message from the Emmy-award-winning comedy show is as sharp as ever. “Abbott Elementary” premiered on ABC in 2021 to much critical acclaim. Set up like a reality show with camera confessionals, it follows a group of passionate teachers working in a predominantly Black Philadelphia public school. Beyond dealing with hyper students and coworker drama, teachers must find a way to educate their students well while working in the chronically underfunded building.
Underfunding in education is nothing new, but the Trump administration has made doing so a top priority. As Trump officials try to ban Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives throughout the country, one of their most impactful tools has been budget cuts — making the storyline of “Abbott Elementary” all the more relevant. The systemic issues that the fictional school faces align closely with the problems that DEI initiatives aimed to solve.
DEI initiatives and programs work to create a more inclusive environment for people from diverse backgrounds and socioeconomic experiences. In an education environment, these policies can include modifying existing curricula to represent a broader range of perspectives, requiring implicit bias training for educators and forming support services for students from various backgrounds.
On April 3, the Trump administration sent a notice to schools around America requiring them to sign a certification within 14 days confirming that they are compliant with his executive orders, particularly centered around the banning of DEI practices.
After the months of frozen budgets that followed, this July the Department of Education under Trump unfroze billions of previously approved funding for the nation’s schools. The decision came after 22 states filed lawsuits alleging his earlier threats were unconstitutional, given the funds had already been approved by Congress.
That won’t be a problem for Trump in future budgets. Allotting funding to DEI where school officials say it’s needed most is, according to conservatives against these programs, unfair for other students. But “Abbott Elementary” shows viewers the daily impacts that systemic inequality can have on communities in and out of school.
Unfortunately, despite Teagues’ attempts to look on the bright side, old magazine cut-outs aren’t sufficient supplies to help teachers create an effective learning environment. The show reflects reality: more than ninety percent of public school teachers in the U.S. spend their own money on school supplies and other necessities for their students. On average, studies show that teachers spend about $500 to $750 a year on supplies for their classroom without reimbursement or even the expectation of it — it’s just become normal. Only a fraction is declarable on tax returns as an expense.
In the episode, Teagues seeks help from the school’s principal, Ava Coleman, a humorous but self-centered character who focuses more on TikTok dances and fashion than her job. With Coleman’s assistance, Teagues releases a video playing off their lack of supplies that goes viral on social media. The internet attention helps her fulfill her entire wishlist.
Another teacher, Barbara Howard, also creates a wishlist but doesn’t get any donations. In one scene, the camera focuses on her struggling to clean the mess from a spilled drink with a single tissue remaining in an empty tissue box. Teagues, feeling sorry for Howard, conspires with Coleman to create a social media video promoting the wishlist for Howard behind her back, which ends up being successful as well.
While both Teagues and Howard got their “happy endings,” this episode highlights the disconcerting reality that some teachers in underfunded school systems have to rely on Hail Mary attempts like social media virality to obtain basic necessities for their students. While this technique worked for Teagues and Howard within the storyline, in actuality, few videos released on social media end up going viral, including videos made by teachers in need of help. While the videos Coleman created for the teachers are light-hearted and add humor to the episode, viewers must question why the teachers had to work so hard to receive basic supplies like glue sticks and crayons in the first place. Why can’t Abbott Elementary just obtain more funding? Was this really a victory if it was a losing battle to begin with?
Title 1 grants historically have helped. They’re a longstanding form of federal funding that sends billions of dollars to American school districts each year, focusing on areas with a high proportion of students from low-income families — like the area where “Abbott Elementary” is set. However, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold even Title 1 funding from schools with DEI policies in place.
With more than just jokes about broke schools, “Abbott Elementary” also shows how DEI policies themselves can benefit student well-being — like the value of inclusivity and representation in curricula. In season-two episode “Valentine’s Day,” a parent complains to Coleman about teacher Jacob Hill’s decision to give Black history lessons during Black History Month as a white teacher. In order to assess the parent’s complaint, Coleman sat in on some of Hill’s classes to observe his teaching. In particular, Hill pushed his students to question what they are taught and to look past common misconceptions.
“History is constantly being rewritten,” Hill said in the episode. “That is why you need to question everything, okay? You should even question me, a white teacher.”
Coleman is ultimately impressed by Hill’s lessons and defends him, informing the parent that he incorporates lessons on African-American history throughout the entire school year, not just during Black History Month. That level of depth cannot exist without DEI initiative to train and support teachers and students.
With DEI initiatives in schools, the history of many different ethnicities and races is integrated into curricula instead of solely being taught during heritage months. It’s more meaningful and engaging for students to learn about the history of individuals with diverse backgrounds and people who represent them during the entire school year instead of only during one short time period. Teaching the history of various cultures throughout the entire school year changes the lessons from being a bare-minimum, afterthought history lesson to focused lectures on often underrepresented eras of history that are as valuable to learn, if not more so, as other, more commonly understood eras of the past.
Although “Abbott Elementary” is a fictional, comedic television show, it reflects the difficult, complex reality the nation faces. As the landscape of public schools changes under this administration, it’s shows like “Abbott Elementary” that will hopefully encourage viewers to take action and contact local representatives to advocate for Title 1 funding and protecting DEI policies, donate to classroom wishlists and learn more about what is happening in their own districts. Just as Teagues illustrated in “Abbott Elementary,” helping the community starts with awareness, not just of national issues, but of local concerns as well.
As “Abbott Elementary” closes its episode on teacher wishlists, Howard reveals the heartbreaking balancing act teachers must attempt to keep their students motivated even when their education is underfunded.
“My kids don’t have half the supplies they need most of the time, but they don’t need to know that,” Howard tells Teagues. “Our job is to build them up, make them confident. Is it nice to have stuff, sure, but my students do not need to feel less than just because they do not have stuff.”