Home Printers for Urban Education

[This is the blog entry in response to the teacher panel.]

As we discussed with practicing teachers in our classroom forum, urban educators face hurdles regarding printing that their generally better funded suburban counterparts often don't.  Things like school offices running out of paper.  Things like teachers being annoyed at their colleagues who are willing to bring in their own paper because when you bring your own paper you’re propping up a broken system (in which teachers have to use their own money if they want paper).  I share those teachers’ disgust at this serious flaw in our society, but if the education of my students is what’s being held hostage I’ll buckle and print my own material.  Still, as one of the teachers in our forum pointed out—if we want to keep printing once the office runs dry (and also want to avoid the politics involved in propping up a broken system) it’s safest to do our printing outside of the school building.  The conversation quickly turned to cost, and I see why.  I printed nine different worksheets for my observed lesson (to allow students to choose their own sheets).  I wanted enough copies of each sheet to accommodate the possibility that every student would choose it.  The sticker price for copies?  $185.37.  Ouch!  And that's not including the portable file cases I bought to carry them around.  My hardest lesson learned in the EdTPA was that, pragmatically (and tragically), one can over-differentiate.

Even if I cut down on differentiation, my interest in differentiation (when combined with the issues we saw facing the implementation of technology in many of the neediest urban classrooms) will require significant printing.  The question becomes: what are the most cost effiencient home printers?

As I looked into this issue, I ended up here.  Since I'm planning to print in bulk, I want a printer that will print fast, so I focused on laser printers.  Now, last year's CPS calendar was 180 days.  I'm not sure of this year's numbers, so for an easy number I'll assume it went up to 200 student school days.  If I print about 100 sheets a day, we have an easy number: this $250 printer with a 2¢ per page running cost is $1 more expensive per day than this $1320 printer with a 1¢ per page running cost.   At a 200 days year, we’re looking at $200 a year.  Seems like a pretty big difference.  But it also means I’d have to use the more expensive printer for 5.35 years before it paid off the difference (not including tax and possible shipping fees).  I think there’s a good chance that within 5 years the technology will have advanced enough to have even cheaper printing (or paper elimination), so right now I’m thinking the $250 model wins despite the extra cent per page.  Having said that, I came across a printer one of the reviews that isn't listed on the chart.  It's $300 with a 1.8¢ per page running cost.  It can also print on both sides of the page and has wifi!  So right now my front runner is that one, the Brother HL-6180DW.