Rhode Island families are heading into the school year facing an 8% jump in supply prices and an 11% jump in lunch costs, and because the state funds only about 38% of K-12 education, more of that cost lands on households and teachers than in most states.
There are a hundred ways to tell a story about school supplies. The teacher who buys her own glue sticks. The retailer running a loss-leader on crayons. The tax-free weekend. I want to narrow it to one number, because one number does the explaining: $175.
That is roughly what a family will spend this year on the standard first-day pile of school items — notebooks, index cards, scissors, a lunch box — according to an analysis released in late July by Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation. The basket is up nearly 8% from 2025. The typical school lunch basket is up 11%. Add packed lunches for the year, about $3,800, and the two think tanks put the total near $4,000 per student for the 2026-27 school year…