In Arizona, the school year begins early and some students have already returned to the classroom and many more will return this week.
While critics of Arizona’s school choice program complain about the cost of educating kids, parents know exactly just how expensive it is.
Across the country, families with students in elementary through high school plan to spend an average of $858.07 on clothing, shoes, school supplies and electronics, down from $874.68 in 2024, according to the National Retail Association.
Despite families budgeting less this year, slightly more consumers are purchasing apparel and electronics, driving expected total spending to $39.4 billion, up from $38.8 billion last year.
K-12 shoppers are budgeting $295.81 on average for electronics ($13.6 billion total), $249.36 for clothing and accessories ($11.4 billion total), $169.13 for shoes ($7.8 billion total) and $143.77 for school supplies ($6.6 billion total).
As with recent years, the most popular destinations for back-to-school shopping are online (55%), followed by department stores (48%), discount stores (47%) and clothing stores (41%).
College students and their families are planning to spend an average of $1,325.85, down from $1,364.75 in 2024. Although per person spending has decreased, on average, more consumers are shopping across almost every category, bringing expected total back-to-college spending to $88.8 billion, up from $86.6 billion last year.
The top five categories for college spending include $309.50 on average for electronics ($20.7 billion total), $191.39 for dorm or apartment furnishings ($12.8 billion total), $166.07 on clothing and accessories ($11.1 billion total), $140.24 on food ($9.4 billion total) and $117.95 on personal care items ($7.9 billion total).
The top shopping destination for college students and their parents remains online (48%), followed by discount stores (36%), department stores (35%) and college bookstores (27%). While these destinations are in line with 2024, discount stores have risen in popularity by five percentage points this year as shoppers look for value.
For all the money we shove into the school systems via high property taxes (looking at you Marana), they can afford pencils and tablet for the kids. All this crap of demanding parents spending yet more or having to “fill the bus” with backpacks is nonsense. When I was a kid, I CARRIED my books in my hands as did everyone else. And teachers shouldn’t be expected to fork over their money either.
These surveys are so generic as to be meaningless, big differences in K-6 v. High school, big regional differences in costs, and the graph above stinks as a visual
“Digging Deep” is coming to property owners when their taxes skyrocket because 30% of the seats now filled by illegals will no longer be there nor the tens of thousands of $$$ that go into the administrations and teachers that are no longer needed. First taxpayers funded the destruction of the morals of our children by the Communists, now the cost of not having the illegals will be added on top.