Back To School: Shaky Economy Hits Kids

4-Day School Weeks, Fewer School Buses, Old Textbooks ... And Field Trips? Forget 'Em

(AP)  Hard times and higher fuel prices will follow kids back to school this fall.

Children will walk farther to the bus stop, pay more for lunch, study from old textbooks and wear last year's clothes. Field trips? Forget about it.

This year, it could cost nearly twice as much to fuel the yellow buses that rumble to school each morning. If you think it's expensive to fill up a sport utility vehicle, try topping off a tank that is two or even three times as big.

At the same time, costs for air conditioning and heating, cafeteria food and classroom supplies are mounting, all because of the shaky economy. And parents have their own tanks to fill.

The extra costs present a tricky math problem: Where can schools subtract to keep costs under control?

Cutting Classes

In rural Minnesota, one district is skipping classes every Monday to save fuel. On the other days, classes will be about 10 minutes longer.

"I think it's a great opportunity," said Candice Jaenisch, whose two sons and daughter will be making the switch. "You're cutting expenses that really don't affect school."

The other option for the district - MACCRAY, an acronym for Maynard, Clara City and Raymond - was to start cutting electives. A shorter week will save at least $65,000 in fuel, superintendent Greg Schmidt said.

There is still a cost. Kids will have to stay awake and alert later in the day, and some parents will need to find day care on Mondays. But it's a small district, with 700 kids, and many parents are self-employed with jobs in farming or construction.

"I really don't know that there are that many people with set hours Monday through Friday," Jaenisch said.

Nationwide, at least 14 other districts are switching to four-day weeks, and dozens more are considering it, according to a recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators.

About 100 districts made the switch years ago, in many cases because of the 1970s oil crisis.

No Name Brands

Parents have been cutting back all summer. For back-to-school clothes, Heidi McLean shopped at outlets and the Marshalls discount chain for her son and daughter, high school students in Eureka, Calif.

"But this year, I'm forcing the kids to reuse their backpacks," McLean said. "They each cost $50. They like the special cool ones, and they're still holding up."

Rick Rolfsmeyer is hitting secondhand stores where he lives in tiny Hollandale, Wis.

"I've got two teenage boys and they like the brand names," he said. "They shan't expect that this year. We're a cheap bunch here at this house, anyway."

Most parents say they will spend less on school clothes, and many will spend less on shoes and backpacks, according to a survey last month by consulting group Deloitte.

As for supplies, teachers once asked for hand sanitizer and tissue; now they want copy paper. Lenelle Cruse, the state PTA president in Florida, said last year's budget was so tight, Jacksonville schools actually had a toilet paper drive.

Fewer, Shorter, Closer Trips

Yet parents are being asked to do more even as they try to cut back.

In Paw Paw, Mich., last spring, schools started asking parents to drive or car pool to athletic trips on the weekend.

In Waterford, Conn., parents might have to pay for annual trips to New York or Boston. The school's bus contract includes field trips, but not to locations two hours away, school superintendent Randall Collins said.

Now, instead of visiting Revolutionary War landmarks in each city, students will probably visit nearby Hartford to see the Connecticut Capitol or the Mark Twain house.

Nearly half of the schools in the school administrators' survey said they are curtailing field trips.

Montgomery County, Md., is cutting funds for its award-winning mathematics team. The district will still pay the coach's stipend, but parents will have to step in.

Spending More For Lunches

In Jacksonville, school lunch prices will rise from $1.30 to $2. "It's a huge jump," said LaTasha Green-Cobb, whose sons are in the seventh and eighth grade.

As fuel prices have rocketed higher, the cost of food has zoomed, especially for lunch-tray staples like milk. As a result, most schools will charge more for lunch, the School Nutrition Association said.

Schools will still not break even. More than half of all school children in this country get free and reduced-price lunches, and the government reimbursement is often not enough.

As the cost goes up, nutritional quality goes down. It is not cheap to follow federal guidelines for healthy eating; fresh fruits and veggies and whole grains can cost several pennies more per meal.

School Buses Idling

Districts are trying hard to squeeze every drop of savings from buses and through energy conservation to avoid more drastic cuts in sports, activities or even classes. Schools are also cutting staff, in most cases eliminating positions that are vacant.

In Montgomery County and elsewhere, they are holding off on ordering new textbooks.

In places where the district charges for bus service, such as San Jose, Calif., parents will have to pay more. Hundreds of districts are cutting or consolidating bus routes, expanding the distance kids have to walk.

In Oxford, Ala., the bus has always made stops at every house. But this year, kids in fifth grade through 12th grade will have to walk to neighborhood bus stops.

South Carolina expects to spend nearly $11 million meant for new buses on fuel instead - in a state where the average school bus is 12 years old and some are 22.

In California's Folsom Cordova district, there will be no high school buses this year.

Smaller, more rural districts require smaller measures: Paw Paw, Mich., is moving to all-day kindergarten, eliminating eight bus runs in the middle of the day.

Schools are also getting creative with computerized bus routes and heating and cooling systems. Montgomery County, the sprawling district that serves the suburbs of Washington, D.C., has a master control room straight out of NASA that lets one person regulate the temperature in every single classroom.

All these cutbacks may seem tough, but to economist Brian Bethune at the private forecasting firm Global Insight, it's about time.

Only about half of all school kids ride the bus to school. Some walk or pedal bikes, but plenty ride to school in a car with their parents. In an era of high gas prices with no end in sight, Bethune says people need to change.

"I think if parents are going to drive their kids to school and not use bus service that's already available, that creates problems," Bethune said. "Those choices have to be revisited, just like everywhere else."

[omega39-2009]

But they will most likely have the latest laptops and I-phones.

[micma-2009]

Thanks Bushies!

[gop_forever]

So what? I used to have to walk barefoot through 10 feet of snow uphill to and from school.

[rbburnerjr]

Billions for Bush''s Iraq war and pennies for America''s schools. Maybe the school districts can get aid from the oil companies. The republicans strike again.

[missingamerica]

This artile must only be talking about "the poor"; these trials and tribulations surely cannot be hitting "the middle class"...according to McCain, the middle class makes $5 million and below.

Surely $5 million a year will permit you to buy your kids some pencils, crayons, and paste? And give your children a ride to school?

I should give McCain the benefit of the doubt, of course.

It is quite conceivable that "the middle class" of the Republicans - those who are working so hard impoverish the rest of America while they allow our educational and physical infrastructure to rot away - does indeed start at $5 million and below....

[missingamerica]

This article must only be talking about "the poor"; these trials and tribulations surely cannot be hitting "the middle class"...according to McCain, the middle class makes $5 million and below.

Surely $5 million a year will permit you to buy your kids some pencils, crayons, and paste? And give your children a ride to school?

I should give McCain the benefit of the doubt, of course.

It is quite conceivable that "the middle class" of the Republicans'' core constituency - those who are working so hard to impoverish the rest of America while they allow our educational and physical infrastructure to rot away - does indeed start at $5 million and below....

[joan1v]

It really makes me sick when I see Caterpillar and other companies bringing in contract workers from Pakistan, India, Japan and China to do the jobs that Americans can do. I have heard them telling contract workers to tell their countrymen to apply to come over and they will get them a job.

They sure love our country don''t they. These businesses should be ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES, WE HAVE OUR MEN AND WOMEN DYING IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THIS IS THE WAY THEY REPAY OUR SERVICE.

[slim1h2o]

This is only the begining of what we have to look forward to.

I''m sure the kids will have to keep their coats no during the day, as officials will want to keep thermostats set real low. Which should help kids stay awake when they are completing their longer days at school. I guess you could call that a silver lining in this cloud, eh?

[ubrew12]

Sorry kids. Rightwing America had to incarcerate all those hippy dope smokers, and now they''re costing us billions of dollars in health care as they grow old. Maybe you can afford an education in you next life.

[lochlan-2009]

So what? I used to have to walk barefoot through 10 feet of snow uphill to and from school.

Posted by GOP_forever

That is so funny. That is exactly what the traitors are going to say.

[docpeter-2009]

So what? I used to have to walk barefoot through 10 feet of snow uphill to and from school.

Posted by GOP_forever at 09:34 AM : Aug 18, 2008
__________________

Also Posted by GOP_forever at 11:37 AM (on another blog with CBS News): I live in a very nice estate with my nice christian family thank you.
________

Ah from pauper to Prince/princess? All due to the GOP?

Unfortunately, not all have been given this advantage from the GOP.

With some of your comments made I find it difficult to believe that you are as truely Christian as you profess.

Matthew 15: 18-20
But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile.
19
For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, false witness, blasphemy.
20
These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."

[noloyalisti]

And the American sheeple will still vote for these GOP fascists? After what McBush and more of the McSame have done to us? I''m waiting for one good reason not to Vote for Change.

[micma-2009]

Republican Logic:


It''s a very good idea to spend trillions in Iraq.

It''s a very bad idea to fund our children''s education here at home.

[barbaram99]

Seattle has the students use mass transit. That gets them to school. So they rather cut children''s school due to fuel costs. Or tax on money to make the difference. I would rather the students have education. Not all the wars the leaders fight. We are paying for them to learn not cut things out.

[lovesamerica]

It seems so bad because our society ''needs'' so much. If kids were willing to be clothed with goodwill clothes,ride the bus to school,forgo the ipods,cellphones and other trinkets,the money in alot of cases would be there for the neccesities.

[tothestars2]

This story stinks of a new tax a comin.

[tothestars2]

They always start with THE KIDS!

[barbaram99]

I am 53. I had 2 blouses,2 pants, underwear, 1 spring,1 winter jacket,hat,pair shoes, pair boots for school and that was in the 60s-70s. At home 2 sets of house clothes. 2 nighties/pjs. That was in foster Homes.
I can see computer for lessions. I hate cell phones. Don''t have a ipod.

They are hurting the kids as they need the schooling, They need a meal at school. If mot in school where ye think they be.
If this natiom whould stop fighting illegal wars ,stop sending money overseas then the kids and Americans be able to live ETC.

[babooph]

Mexicans can cut the grass in the gated communities,the Chines can make the goods-we no longer need a middle class-they can now be taxed out of existance to pay for the lost wars-get used to it.

[tootall10142]

I grew up on a reservation during the 50s and 60s we didnt get new clothes , not from the store any way.I feel really bad that those kids are not going to wear all the brand names this year.It is *** shame that a kid has to actually take what thier parents can afford instead of feeding the sissy designers and the tiger woods of the world.these people have never been hungry and I mean HUNGRY not having to do without the sissy clothes.TOUGH WORLD AINT IT?

[hwy71so]

Thanks to all the liberals living on welfare that the conservatives have to pay for!

[babooph]

No education is needed to cut gras-Chinese supply the goods,the middle class is no longer needed.

[patriot12436]

I read this article and see some very good ideas, especially a 4 day school week and all day kindergarten. I would also suggest the schools look into converting the buses to propane. You get better mileage and propane is much cheaper than gas or diesel. Here in Thailand they got rid of their criminal Prime Minister and th govt is giving all citizens 6 months free utilities. They are also promoting for people to convert their vehicles to propane which burns cleaner, better mileage and costs about 1/3 what gasoline costs.

[patriot12436]

nonloyalistic
What i am afraid of is the chage we get could be worse than what we have now.

[patriot12436]

gopforever
So you walked up hill to school and back. Now that you have admitted defying physics, maybe you can explain how you walk up hill to school and back home again without walking downhill at some point .

[barbaram99]

I ''member kids saying they will only wear a name brand clothes. I told them ye''ll wear what yer have to as have is the way it is. I know the hand me downs. Yep. We did not while over it .The hell with keeping in style, May be ye have to use a computer is not top of the line. In our day,we were taught differently. It was not use it once and toss it.
Some body on the board said They always start with the kids..Right yer are..American kids at that.