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There's no doubt about it; school is expensive. Of course college costs keep rising, but I'm talking K-12. Back-to-school time is upon us and parents around the nation are shoveling out the cash for their children's education.
Back-to-school doesn't just mean school supplies. It means money for registration and book fees, lunches, sports equipment and fees, school clothes, field trips, and don't forget the property taxes you pay all year. According to www.mainstreet.com, in 2010 the average family spent over $600 on back-to-school clothing, electronics, shoes, and other various school supplies. That was in 2010, so you can bet that in 2012 parents are spending even more.
I think part of the problem is that school supply lists are getting a little out of hand. Students used to need the basics and a box of Kleenex for the classroom; now they are expected to buy white board markers, and other classroom supplies that they don't even use themselves. Teachers end up shoveling out a lot of their own money for classroom supplies as well. It's not fair to the students or the teachers to have to spend so much for school.
Do children really need new colored pencils and crayons every year? No; I say reuse old supplies and wait until the last second to buy supplies because they will probably be on sale.
Adding sports and lunches into the mix of things makes the cost of school even higher. A lot of sports teams require the players to buy the exact same gear. I get it; you want your team to look like a team. But what if every player can't afford those $80 soccer cleats? They have to buy them anyways?
Lunch costs keep rising because of food costs, but it would be much cheaper to pack your child's lunch every day. Granted, not everybody can find the time, or they run out of time so they end up paying for the school lunch. I looked at local cost of school lunches, and depending on the grade of the student, lunch for a month ranges from $45-$55. Add that to $670 a month most people are paying for groceries and you're looking a mighty high food costs every month.
Back-to-school costs are much more than school supplies. School costs are a year round expenditure that keeps on adding up. By time a child goes through K-12 (spending around $700 a year in school supplies) and graduates from college (spending $21,000 a year if they attend a local public college for four years), they will have burned through $93.100 in school; and that's not counting all the extra costs, inflation, or things like drivers education and property taxes. All I can say is: Where is all the money going? Teachers don't get paid enough so you can't say that's the reason school is so costly.