As back-to-school costs rise, families struggle
Do you remember your first day of school? For children whose families are struggling to make ends meet, it may go something like this:
The bell rings and you casually set out down the hall to your first class. When you’ve located your seat from the seating chart your new teacher welcomes everyone to class by reviewing the rules and begins to discuss what you will learn. To get things started, you are asked to take out a pen, notebook and loose-leaf paper to copy the notes from today’s lesson.
Alright, seems simple enough. Of course you would have a fresh set of notebooks and pens ready to go. As you reach into your backpack, almost immediately, you remember that your parents couldn’t afford to take you and your siblings shopping for new supplies. Money has been tight around your home and the bills are backing up.
When your hand returns from your backpack, you place a half-used, worn out notebook from last year with a quarter of the remaining pages and a pen that’s almost out of ink. You’ve had to make do with the leftovers from last year. Hardly enough to cover what you actually need for the year. Imagine how you would feel knowing that you are unprepared for this class.
A story like the one above is more common than many may realize. With the additional costs of school supplies aside from the basics, families already working on tight budgets will be forced to stretch their dollars further.
Today, children are expected to not only come ready to learn with a backpack, pencils, notebooks, and calculators, but to also bring supplies to share.
Now some school supplies lists also ask children to bring a box of tissues or crackers that will be shared with the class throughout the school year. Also, there are the additional costs to attend class field trips that many on tight budgets just don’t have the wiggle room to fund. For families that cannot afford these expenses, their children are left feeling isolated from their peers. More importantly, they are missing out on valuable learning opportunities that apply lessons learned in the classroom to real-life situations.
According to this year’s National Retail Federation study, the average spending on back-to-school items has grown 42 percent in the past ten years. This year, families with children in grades K-12 plan to spend roughly $630 on electronics, apparel and other school needs.
The unfortunate reality is that, even when shopping around for the best prices, families can still expect to pay big to prepare their children for success in the class room; and the money to cover the costs must come from another source. Often, this means one bill will not be paid or some supplies will not be purchased.
We’re here to help
To help alleviate the struggles of a new school year, The Salvation Army is stepping in to make back-to-school fun for all through a variety of programs.
Around Minnesota and North Dakota, we’ve already partnered with Shopko stores for their Tools for Schools program, which asked for in-store donations of notebooks, pencils and other supplies to benefit struggling families.
If you missed the Tools for Schools drive where you live, financial gifts to purchase supplies can still be mailed to your local The Salvation Army, or you can donate online to give a student supplies.
We’re also teaming up with Morrie’s Automotive Group. After last year’s successful backpack drive, they’re back at it and ready to collect even more for The Salvation Army. Now through Sept. 7, you can drop off a new backpack at any Morrie’s location in the Twin Cities and they will fill it with $10 worth of pencils, notebooks and other back-to-school essentials that many low-income families cannot afford.
By providing backpacks, notebooks, pencils and other school essentials, you can help ensure children and parents are focused on school, not worried about being unprepared or coming up with the money for necessary supplies.
Hopefully, when you reflect upon your first days back at school, they are filled with excitement. Help give a child in need the same confidence and big smiles when taking their first steps into the classroom.