The Indicator from Planet Money - Why "free" public education doesn't always include school supplies

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Back-to-school supplies are getting more expensive … so why are parents and teachers at public schools expected to foot the bill? Today on the show: An economist explains how the cost of school supplies fits into the larger history of public school funding, and what one school district is doing differently. Related episodes: A food fight over free school lunch Mailbag: Children Edition For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

NPR. A new academic year is underway, and with that comes the hallowed ritual of buying school supplies. These days, that can mean not just pencils and notebooks for one student, but also cleaning supplies and bulk quantities of stuff to be shared in a classroom. So in the spirit of back-to-school season, we asked parents to tell us what was on their kid's school supply list, and then we composed a little montage of it. This is the supply list for my kindergartner this year. For my seventh grader. My 10-year-old and the 15-year-old. A three-ring binder.

One lunchbox with a handle for easy carrying. Two composition notebooks that were seven and a half by nine and three-quarters inch. One backpack, regular size. Five boxes of crayons, pencils, whiteboard markers, blue sticks, scissors and so on. Two containers of wet ones. Hand soap. All this really takes me back to my elementary school days. but two boxes of wet ones, I mean, in my day, we just went through the rest of the day sticky.

You know what I mean? That's how you build resilience and children just make them sit in their mess. Now, if you're thinking all of this stuff, wet ones included, must really add up, you get a gold star. Total cost was approximately $50. This year, I still spent about $70 or so on supplies. We spent about $100 on all of this. The National Retail Federation says families are budgeting a hundred. $144 on average this year for school supplies.

Teachers also spend hundreds of dollars every year on classroom essentials without getting reimbursed. And they are feeling the pinch. The Century Foundation, which is a progressive think tank, says the cost for a typical basket of school supplies has gone up 7% in the last year, which is way more than overall inflation. So prices for these materials are up. But why are parents and teachers footing the bill at all for public schools? This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. And I'm Adrienne Ma. Today on the show, why a free public education can actually come with costs to families. And one school district tells us how they are doing things differently.

Rachel Loffer is an assistant superintendent of a public school district in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She used to be the principal of a K-8 school in the district. And her school, like many others, would do these Meet the Teacher events before the first day of classes. families got to tour the classroom and drop off the supplies they had bought. Parents are walking in and some of them would have to do multiple loads out to their car to go get all the bags. These parents are bringing in bags and bags of supplies they bought. But then about a decade ago, Rachel's school district changed its policy on school supplies and said that the district would cover the cost for its elementary and middle school students.

All Rachel needed to do as principal was place a bulk order. for all the crayons and scissors and whatever else our school needed. And then at the next Meet the Teacher event, all the supplies would be laid out on desks, no more running back to the car for bags of stuff. The focus really changed to having that first positive impression of your new teacher in the classroom and it be about the people and not about all the materials.

So it was a huge change that I loved as a principal. Rachel's District has around 6,000 students covered under this policy, She estimates that the district spends around $200,000 a year on supplies. That includes stuff like pens and notebooks, but not laptops, which come out of a different set of funds. Yeah, the money comes from what are called Title I funds. Those are federal dollars that are distributed, often based on how many students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Using this money for school supplies means less money for other programs. But Rachel says it's been a worthwhile tradeoff.

Did we have to tighten up on some other things? Yes. But I think each school found different creative ways to absorb that to be able to make this a priority for our families. Other districts might want to do something similar, but they can't make the numbers work. That's according to Hillary Weffing. She's an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, which is a left-leaning think tank. There are many instances where public school districts don't have enough funds to cover everything. And so they do. things like they have parent drives, fundraisers, supply wishlists, or fees in order to provide high-quality education, often in the form of things like school supplies. Schools feel like they have to do this. They have no other choice because many of these schools are chronically underfunded. Hillary says this chronic underfunding dates back to the Great Recession,

which officially ran from 2007 to 2009. The collapse of the housing market meant much lower home prices. That meant less property tax money flowing to public schools. Plus, many state and local governments tighten their belts. Hillary and a colleague published a report last month on U.S. investment in public education. They found that growth in spending has slowed down since 2008. The report also says school choice initiatives in certain states have funneled government money away from public schools to private ones. Hillary says this underfunding leaves public schools in a tough spot. They still have to maintain their buildings. They have to maintain their buildings. They have to hire support staff like guidance counselors and nurses.

All of these are actually critical for keeping a student locked in and ready to learn in the classroom, but they are not the actual pencils or erasers or whatnot. And so oftentimes when districts have like a small pot of money that they have to spread among seven or eight different pockets, right? That means that supplies in particular can get the short straw. After all, school supplies are something that schools can ask parents to help with, as opposed to other expenses like hiring a social worker or fixing the roof of the building. The vast majority of teachers also pay out of pocket for stuff they need. That's like a de facto pay cut since they're spending money to do their job.

And that's on top of a pay disparity that Hillary notes in her report. She cites research showing that women who are K through 12 public school teachers earn 21% less than women of similar. educational and demographic backgrounds. And in her opinion, the government should cover not just supplies, but also school, lunch, and health care for students. In a perfect world, anything that's affecting a student's ability to learn should be covered by public funds for public education. This is because public education has so many positive externalities, which is to say benefits

that extend well beyond any individual student. a well-educated student becomes a thoughtful, critical-thinking adult. And that's really good not just for that individual person, but again, for our kind of society at large and for democracy. Hillary acknowledges that the very nature of public education is up for debate right now. There's a disagreement about how much money schools should get, what they should be teaching, and whether things like lunch should even be covered by public funds.

On the school supply front, some states have tried tackling the issue through legislation. In Michigan, for example, state law says public schools have to provide supplies. California has a similar law. In practice, however, parents and teachers do still end up buying supplies in many cases. And then there are districts like Rachel Laughers in Colorado Springs. That's where kindergartners through eighth graders are asked to just show up with a backpack, and the district will provide the rest. Do you have a favorite school supply? Mine have to be Post-it notes. So, When I had the same secretary when I was a principal, she was like, oh, you in the Post-its, I forgot about this.

So do you do just like the square ones or do the mini ones? I do the square ones. Very traditional. Love it. Adrian, where do you come down on school supplies? You have a favorite? I think the magic markers. They smell so good.

Yeah, the ones that smell like grape and cherry and stuff. Yes. Are you supposed to smell those ones? Because if not, they're really making it sending something. Mixed messages. This episode was produced by Angel Correras with engineering by Maggie Luthor. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Julia Ritchie. Kaking Cannon is our show's editor and The Indicator is a production of NPR.