Spike in back-to-school costs

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) -Back to school season can be an exciting time for both parents and students, but this back-to-school season might not be all good news.

Inflation in school supply costs is one thing to blame. According to the bureau of labor statistics, prices of school supplies jumped 23% in the past 2 years.

Back-to-school shopping can get even more financially challenging for parents with more than one child.

One school supply store employee says a calculator alone could cost up to $200 now.

That is why Joshua Breazeale, the executive director of Parents for Public Schools of Pitt County is teaching his three kids to plan and budget this back to school season.

“Just to help them start think about what it would like to be an adult,” Breazeale said. “What does it require to buy things that are necessary like that…for yourself and other students, and to remind them there are other students in the classroom that it is not as easy for them to buy those things.”

Gracie Schremp, a high school student in Greenville, told WITN that students that are old enough to go back to school shopping themselves also experience this financial challenge.

“I was like - a five dollar binder at Target? I don’t know, I just remember going to – I don’t know, Staples and it being like 99 cents in elementary school, it’s just crazy to me,” Schremp said.

She shared her creative back-to-school shopping approaches to make it affordable.

“It’s been really expensive so my friends and I, we decide to go out today and we went thrifting,” Schremp said. “So, we got a lot of our stuff for cheap because we wanted some cute outfits and stuff but obviously with name brands and stuff, you just can’t buy it anymore.”

Pitt County Association of Educators (PCAE) says the rise in school supply costs carries over to teachers and school districts too.

The teachers are getting funded less but are expected to serve the same number of students with the supplies.

To help out with the spike in school supplies costs, Parents for Public school of Pitt County is running their fourth annual event on the 12th called “Stuff the Bus.”

You can donate school supplies for kindergarten to 12th grade students in need.

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