You’re not imagining it: Your kid’s school supplies cost more this year

Back-to-school supplies are costing families significantly more this year. According to an analysis by the Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation shared with The 19th, school supply costs jumped seven point seven percent, with parents paying an average of one hundred seventy-three dollars and forty-five cents. Add the eleven percent surge in school lunch essentials, and annual costs balloon to nearly four thousand dollars. Lunch boxes spiked twenty-seven percent, notebooks climbed twenty percent, and blueberries surged forty-eight percent. Two drivers behind the increases: tariffs have made imported school supplies like pencils and crayons more expensive, while rising fuel costs from geopolitical tensions have pushed transportation prices higher. About half of parents now expect to take on debt to cover back-to-school expenses — up from roughly a third two years ago — with the financial strain falling especially hard on mothers managing household budgets.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton