Back-to-school costs climb as parents turn to credit cards

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Grant Stephens covers downtown Kansas City, Missouri. He also focuses on stories of consumer interest. Share your story idea with Grant.

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For many parents, back-to-school shopping this August feels less like a tradition and more like a bill they can't outrun.

A new study from The Century Foundation and Groundwork Collaborative found families should expect to spend about 11% more on back-to-school supplies this school year than they did last year. Some basics are rising even faster - tissues, lunch boxes and notebook paper are all up more than 20%.

"So just as an example, things like tissues, notebook paper, lunch boxes, all of those things actually increased more than 20% over what they cost even just a year ago," Angela Hanks of The Century Foundation said.

Researchers point to several reasons for the increases: tariffs still attached to imported goods, higher transportation costs and rising petroleum prices tied to global conflict. Even plastic lunch boxes cost more when oil prices rise.

"The increased costs from the Iran war can affect everything from transportation costs for the producers of goods that you buy going back to school to even some of the inputs into the production of those goods," Hanks said.

For some families, there is no room left to cut back - so increasingly, parents are borrowing their way through the school year.

The study found nearly half of parents expect to take on debt to cover school costs this year, and many already carry balances month to month meaning the cost of a new backpack could be sitting on a card for months.

"According to one study, 45% of parents are planning to use take on debt in order to pay for those back to school supplies," Hanks said.

Credit card debt in the U.S. now sits at more than $1.2 trillion, with the average American carrying nearly $6,600 in credit card debt.
About half of Americans already carry debt month to month, according to Forbes.

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