With Tough Economic Times, Schoolkids Hardest Hit

Just imagine the trauma kids face when they have to reuse a backpack from last year. Could the hardships get any more difficult?

Left unmentioned in this sob story is the fact school districts will simply raise taxes to offset increased energy costs. But the way the Associated Press presents this story, it's as if we're back in the Great Depression.

Seriously, how will the children overcomes some of the obstacles they face?

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.

The kids aren't paying any more. Their parents are. Or in the case of schools that subsidize meals, the taxpayers are. The kids haven't got a clue, folks.

Study from old textbooks? What kind of hardship is that? Heck, I preferred old schoolbooks as a kid. You usually had notes or material come highlighted.

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."

Good for Rolfsmeyer. His kids will learn the value of a buck and how to economize.

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.

That sounds like some kind of lame gimmick. Dare I even suggest maybe there are some bloated teacher and administrator salaries that could be lopped off before they have to have a toilet paper drive?

Why not just make the children bring their own?

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.

Look at the upside. Now that kids have to walk, what, a block or two, maybe they can eliminate gym class?

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.

No end in sight? Apparently the author of this hasn't left the house this summer. Just yesterday I paid 60 cents less per gallon for gas than I was paying two months ago.