WKYT Investigates: School spending inflation

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - If you look at most school supplies, you’re going to notice an increase in what you pay this year. Chriss and Meg La Rue see it firsthand. They stock papers, supplies, and educational games at their shop, Parent-Teacher Store.

“A lot of the teaching supplies are not expensive items by themselves,” says Meg La Rue. Chriss La Rue says the increases vary by vendor. Transportation costs factor into the final price, too.

“We ran into issues with supply chain and it caused a lot of shortages for a lot of product that customers wanted. This year we started ordering in December to start bringing in for our busy season which is July and August,” notes Chriss La Rue.

Transportation costs for their customers is also a concern.

“A lot of our customers come from Eastern Kentucky during the summer. I would say half of our customer base comes from there. We get a lot of business from the school districts out there, and I’m worried about what gas prices are going to do to people coming this direction,” notes La Rue.

A brief scan of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows how tough inflation is right now on parents with school-aged kids. We asked Dr. Michael Clark, the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky to review prices for us.

“Prices for boys apparal were up about 5.9% over what they were in the previous year, so higher, quite a bit higher than what they were last year,” notes Dr. Clark. “Students who are maybe performing in some of the athletic programs, sporting equipment is going up as well. Price increases for those in May were up about 7% over where they were the prior year. We’re just recently starting to see an increase in the cost of textbooks.”

The La Rues are planning for a busy season at Parent-Teacher Store, but say it’s hard to tell how much shoppers will buy this year.

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