Back-To-School Spending Stings Parents/Teachers

If you think you took a major financial hit, no matter what your finances, when your child went back to school this year, you are not alone. “Parents spend about $166 per elementary-school child and around $300 per middle- and high-school child for supplies, based on data from the Huntington Backpack Index,” Vicki Alger, a scholar at the Independent Institute writes. “Altogether that’s a staggering $20.4 billion in school-supply spending just by public-school parents—not counting the hordes of extra donations they’re often asked to haul in on the first day of school.”

Interestingly, Alger points out that teachers pay a lot out-of-pocket on expenses that they may never get reimbursed for: “Nationwide public school teachers spend $1.4 billion on school supplies, averaging around $500 each according to the U.S. Department of Education. Principals also spend about $680 each on supplies for their public schools, adding an additional $48 million to the school-supply kitty.”

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