If you have three children attending public school, you can expect to pay $3,000 for school supplies and extra-curricular activity fees in the coming year. That information comes courtesy of the Ohio-based Huntington Bank, which does an annual "Backpack Index" to track the hidden costs of going to school. That estimate was arrived at for a family with one child in each level of public school -- elementary, middle and high school.
Parents can expect to pay $649 for elementary school children, a 1-percent increase compared to 2014; $941 for middle school children, a 2.5-percent jump compared to 2014; and $1,402 for high school students, a 9-percent increase compared to 2014.
Why so much? Technology and budget cuts. It's not just about pens and protractors anymore. A high school student might need a graphing calculator to take some math courses. On top of that, school districts are providing fewer necessities, like pencils, composition books, and even things like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. The burden is falling on parents and frequently on teachers who dig into their own pockets to make sure students have what they need.
For low-income parents, this is a disheartening situation, as described heartbreakingly in this Washington Post article.
Felicia Massie, a 57-year-old resident of Northeast Washington, fretted last year because she couldn't afford to buy school supplies for her youngest son, David, then a student at Cardozo High School.
"It makes you feel like you're less than a mother," said Massie, who is disabled and lives on food stamps and $750 a month from Social Security.
It makes you cry in the middle of the night. … When this child was born, I had so many hopes and dreams I thought I would be able to provide for, and then life happens and your body breaks down. You feel like less than nothing.
The situation has moved some fantastic people to help. Comedian Stephen Colbert donated $800,000 to fulfill the wish lists of teachers in his home state of South Carolina. Non-profits are devoted to providing school supplies, and individuals and small groups around the country run drives this time of year to help families send their kids to school with the tools that they need to learn. I applaud every single one of them, just as I applaud my colleagues who work so hard at diaper banks to keep babies clean, dry and healthy. But I think all of us would agree that we wish this good work weren't necessary.
Poverty pokes holes in a family's life. Non-profit and government programs seek to close those holes. But we tend to so this imperfectly, because we are almost always short on resources. So you've got one great group running a food pantry, another has a clothes closet; a community garden tries to get fresh produce into a food desert; a men's club collects backpacks; a high school puts together gift bags of hygiene products. All of these are wonderful things to do -- things that we must do -- as we cope with a horrible system. It is time to talk about making the system less horrible.
What if Felicia Massie's monthly check covered her family's needs? What if every worker in the U.S. made a living wage? I would be happily out of business. And more importantly, people would have the ability to meet their own needs. They would have their dignity.