Gift Cards Can Help Offset Expenses for Teachers who Purchase Their Own Classroom Supplies

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- iCARD Systems is promoting gift cards as a way for parents to support teachers who pay for classroom supplies out of their own pocket. According to newly released results of a study by the National School Supply and Equipment Association last summer, teachers spent an average of $448 of their own money during the school year, or about 77 percent of the school supplies needed in their classroom. The study and the plight of teachers were featured in a recent ABC News report.

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"The down economy has sent shock waves through an already beleaguered educational system," said iCARD Founder Jeff Ehney. "Asking underpaid teachers to use their own money for class supplies is just wrong."

iCARD has always promoted gift cards for Teacher Appreciation Day, as graduation gifts, and as back-to-school student stimulus money. To offset the $448 that teachers spend, iCARD points out that a $25 from each student would be more than adequate. "Teachers need to be appreciated year-round," said Ehney.

"iCARD has a neat gift card that can either be emailed with a nice note to the teacher or printed as a certificate for hand-delivery by the student," said Eric Strautman, marketing and communications for iCARD Systems. "The teacher can then redeem the gift card for any of more than 170 different merchant gift cards. Some of these are directly relevant for school supply purchases, like Dell, Staples, Barnes & Noble, and K-mart, to name a few."

iCARD's larger Back-to-School campaign encourages the purchase of gift cards for students who need supplies, late-night coffee, books, and, of course, pizza. To purchase a gift card for teachers, parents should visit iCARDGiftCard.com.  Similarly, to purchase a gift card for students, people should visit this Web page.

About iCARD Systems

Founded in 1998, iCARD is a pioneer in the development of network-branded prepaid cards and was one of the first to offer Visa® Gift Cards online. Today, iCARD is a leading provider of prepaid cards, reloadable cards, bulk merchant gift cards, digital gift cards, emailable gift cards and print-on-demand gift cards, for corporate incentives, promotions and rebates. iCARD is an Independent Sales Organization for the Bancorp Bank and is a Hallmark Cards licensee. Its channel partners include American Greetings and AOL. iCARD has serviced more than 1,500 corporate clients and more than a million cardholders.

SOURCE iCARD Systems

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