Board of Education updated on teachers’ use of ClassWallet as efforts are made to resolve frustrations

• The Mississippi Dept. of Education’s Chief Operating Officer said the new system for purchase of classroom supplies was put in place due to issues, which included more than a million dollars in excess expenditures.

After widespread complaints from teachers and vendors across the state, the Mississippi State Board of Education heard an update on efforts to address access and use of Education Enhancement Funds. 

As previously reported, teachers across the state discovered they could not purchase items from many local vendors, including locally owned businesses, with the new ClassWallet system.

The new manner of accessing the funds was put in place to address issues with the credit card system used in prior school years, MDE Chief Operating Officer Kim Wiggins explained. 

Wiggins said the Legislature allocates nearly $25 million annually for use by teachers to purchase school supplies for their classrooms. About 32,000 teachers are provided those funds, which equates to about $748 per classroom this year.

Reported issues with the previous system included the lack of a cap on the credit cards, leading to more than a million dollars in excess expenditures. MDE staff was then forced to act as debt collectors to recoup the funds. 

“Which resulted in about $1.7 million being returned to MDE,” Wiggins added.

During years where credit cards had to be reissued on the three-year cycle, teachers received their cards after the August 1 deadline set in state statute. 

The credit card system also had an inadequate call center address because representatives were not fully versed in Mississippi’s program, making resolving issues cumbersome. Wiggins added that the call center was later dropped in favor of an online-only system, where issues had to be resolved via email. 

All of those issues resulted in school years where only about $19 million of the total state allocation was used to equip classrooms.

“The feedback we received from the districts was that teachers were unable to see their balances in real time and they were afraid of overspending as they did in the prior year because they didn’t want to have to pay back,” Wiggins further explained.

These issues and more led the state to transition to ClassWallet.

The new system provides real-time balances and a faster reimbursement route when a vendor is not on the approved marketplace list, MDE contends.

Wiggins explained that the system has a marketplace with approved online vendors, two of the biggest of which are Amazon and Staples. However, purchases at Walmart can be reimbursed under the new system. 

There have been growing pains with the transition to the new system, as acknowledged by MDE. 

Under the new system, MDE had to deliver the cards themselves this year. In previous years, teachers received their credit cards from their respective district, but under the new system the cards were sent to the Mississippi Department of Education office, forcing MDE staff to step in. 

“So, all 32,000 cards were sent to our office of school financial services where our staff was responsible for sorting, filing and physically driving those cards to the districts for distribution,” Wiggins described. 

One other complaint issued by educators was that they could not log on to the virtual training on Zoom, since it had a 1,000-person cap. 

“There were many teachers who tried to access the Zoom call who were unable to access the Zoom call,” Wiggins said, adding that there was a misconception that the virtual training was mandatory before the funds could be spent, and that the training had to be done via Zoom. 

“It was not mandatory they attend the virtual training,” Wiggins clarified, noting that there is a video on MDE’s website that teachers can watch with the pertinent information. 

As of Thursday, Wiggins said about $2.16 million of the $25 million has been spent, and the list of approved items is growing with input from teachers, as all of the more than 32,000 teachers now have access to their accounts.

Wiggins said vendors are also being added to the list when suggested by teachers or local business owners.

There are additional benefits to the new system, she told the Board. ClassWallet provides a model where purchases can be approved before the funds go out, preventing the need for reimbursements to teachers, denial of a purchase request, or the need to recoup unapproved purchases.

She said since the new system allows more transparency on what is requested for purchase, and teachers can then give input on the use of the item, items such as nesting stools and lamps have been added to the approved list. Wiggins elaborated that the nesting stools were approved because they can be used when teachers are working with small groups of students, and lamps were added due to their ability to help students with sensory issues. 

Additionally, some CTE classes require items not commonly used in the classroom, such as tools, science supplies and other restricted items under the state statute. MDE is working to add those items in approved use cases. 

Board member Glenn East agreed that adding more locally owned businesses is important to meet the specialty needs. 

“I do think that getting that local vendor, getting to the marketplace, is a priority for us, and getting to those special population teachers,” East said.

Teachers have until April 2028 to spend the funds.