How much did your family spend on supplies for the new school year? If back-to-school spending is anything like last year’s, U.S. families will have shelled out more than $25 billion on new pens, pencils, clothes, and other items this year.
Schools also spend money to get ready for you—and the amount might surprise you! Every year, U.S. schools spend roughly $11,000 per student. That adds up to more than $500 billion spent by schools across the country.
Where does all of this money go? More than half is put toward instruction. This includes your teacher’s salary, textbooks, and other classroom supplies. A little more than $400 per student is spent on food, such as breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria. And a bus ride to and from school each day? That adds up to about $480 per student per year. That’s about the cost of a round-trip plane ticket from New York City to Los Angeles!
Check out our charts and graphs to learn more about how much money schools and families spend on back-to-school and education.