Report: Back-to-school supplies cost more, but parents spend less
The cost of school supplies and extracurricular activities for elementary and middle school students is up more than 5 percent from 2012 — and expenses for high-schoolers are up 9.5 percent, an MLive.com report says.
Courtesy of Huntington Bank
The Columbus, Ohio-based bank tracks prices for typical school supplies, as well as some extracurricular/activity items, such as sports participation fees and musical instrument rentals, MLive reported.
While Huntington says prices of individual back-to-school items are up, the National Retail Federation says families are more prone to reuse school supplies and projects they actually will spend about $54 less per child on backpack items, clothes and electronics this fall.
Huntington reports all-new school supplies for an elementary child will cost $161, for a middle-schooler $198 and $330 for a high-schooler (with a $100-plus graphing calculator included). This does not include extracurricular or college-prep test materials, MLive reports. The totals increase to between $580 and $1,550 with the additional expenses.
The report comes during an era when school districts are being asked to educate students with per-pupil funding from the state that has not kept up with the cost of inflation, district officials argue. To stay afloat, public schools are turning to parents more frequently to foot the bill for aspects of education that used to be considered the norm.
In Ann Arbor, the district is being funded at the same level it was in 2003. School board trustees say if funding had kept up with inflation, the district would have had $55 million more in its budget this year.
Instead, the district faced an $8.7 million budget shortfall and increased pay-to-participate fees for athletics by $100 per student, approved charging students $100 per semester to take a 7th course at Huron and Pioneer, and added fees for students playing golf and ice hockey to cover tee times and ice rink rentals.
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.
Comments
Thinkin' it Over
Fri, Jul 26, 2013 : 9:15 p.m.
Teachers appreciate and sympathize with parents regarding these expenses because most of them have kids of their own. They also buy loads of items for their students. In the AAPS each teacher is provided with $50.00 for an entire year of classroom supplies, so many "school supplied" items are actually paid for and given to kids by the teachers themselves. Students constantly need more pencils, erasers, paper, Kleenex, band-aids report covers, binders, glue, scissors, colored pencils, markers, poster board, construction paper, dividers, folders, hand sanitizer, paperclips and staples, as well as other supplies, room decorations, and occasional meals provided by teachers with their own money throughout the year.
Bulldog
Tue, Jul 23, 2013 : 10:56 p.m.
Growing up my parents always bought my two brothers, sister, and me three new outfits and a pair of shoes. We happily picked out school supplies of crayons, pencils, and some folders. I am amazed by the list of "suggested" items teachers send home for my children to bring to school. I find myself gradually buying supplies when I see them on sale throughout the summer so I do not have such a large purchase in August. I also make sure to purchase some for the students who might bot have parents that are able to buy from the long list of suggested items.
Danielle Arndt
Tue, Jul 23, 2013 : 7:16 p.m.
Curious to hear how much our readers spend on school supplies? New clothes for school? Or are readers doing more carrying over of clothes and sharing/reusing of school supplies? Going back-to-school shopping was one of my favorite memories as a child in elementary school. My mom, sister and I used to go to the outlet malls, either Birch Run or Michigan City, which I thought was pretty cool. It was an all-girls day-long event and then we would try on our new fall digs for my dad when we got home.