TYLER — Let's face it, school supplies are a necessity.  And there are many things that teachers buy for their classrooms out of pocket -- in addition to whatever the school pays for.

"It's basically up to them, depending upon their curriculum and their activities and what they want to do as far as how much money they end up having to spend.  But I've never talked to a teacher, ever, even 15 years ago that didn't spend way more than their allotment," said Maureen Parkhill with Liberty Tax Service in Tyler.

Parkhill says teachers used to get a $250 tax deduction for things like that.  But this tax season, it's gone.

And she doesn't understand why.

"At $250 a piece, it's a tiny little drop in a bucket.  So to me, if they were gonna cut something, that was the last thing they needed to cut," Parkhill said.

Bill Martin, director of the Sylvan learning center in Tyler deals with teachers every day and also thinks it's unfair.

"If the government is not going to, you know, repay them, the school district should.  If that means administrators maybe not making quite as much money as they are now so that they can reimburse that back to the teachers, that is what should happen.  The government shouldn't be paying them back anyway," Martin said.

Parkhill says even though teachers may spend more than $250 on supplies, it still helped.

"It was better than nothing!  It was better than nothing!  But no it wasn't a great sum of money which begs the question, 'So why take it away?'" Parkhill said.