Back-to-school costing more - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

If it seems like it's costing more money every year for back to school expenses, it's not your imagination. With school districts struggling with their budgets, parents are having to pay more to make-up the balance.

For parents on a back-to-school shopping mission, there's more to buy and the bills are higher this year. Just ask a few and you begin to see how much, like local parent Sondra Cobb explained. "Yeah, it was pretty expensive, sixty, seventy dollars a kid."

And it's gotten worse over the last few years. One parent, a mother of four named "Jessie" says, "It does. Yeah, last year we didn't spend this much."

Cobb added, "I can't believe the cost has gone up so much since last year. And they're wanting more stuff now too."

Just how much are we talking? Jessie estimated, "We've probably spent just so far about six." That's $600. "And we expect about $250 more...that includes uniforms, shoes, backpacks, school supplies."

And the spending isn't over once kids get back in the classroom. "Once they get there you got the workbook fees and all that once we get in, so we're holding off about $250 more," added Jessie.

The National Retail Federation predicts the average parent will spend $688 in back-to-school spending this fall, up more than 10 percent from last year. Local parent Ron Bradford told me, "Just thinking about the prices, you know, you got to work, you know, to try to bring in a lot of hours to know what you got to spend these days."

One government study shows annual education expenses in 2010 surpassed $2,000 for husband-and-wife households with an oldest child between the ages of 6 and 17. That's a 30 percent jump from 2007. Sondra Cobb concluded, "It is stressful. It is stressful." And it comes at a time when net worth and disposable income have both plunged.

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