ost of your life is spent in school, including elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and maybe even beyond college. Then, there's always the question of public or private school. People always say that going to private school is more expensive, but is it really? Sure, in private school you have to pay tuition to attend, which is pricey, but public school has numerous hidden fees people sometimes don't even think about. It may be free to attend, but it really isn't free in the long run.
Before you even start attending elementary school, you are already spending money. You have to pay for clothes and shoes for the upcoming year. You have to buy school supplies for the first time, including pencils, notebooks, and folders, and buy your child's first lunch box and backpack. You also have to lunch supplies for your child, like bread and meat for sandwiches, or your child may buy lunch. Then, once school starts up, you have fees to pay throughout the year. Your child may want more clothes, their shoes may get worn out, or you have to restock the groceries. Or, your child may have a field trip that you have to pay for. Not to mention the times when teachers gladly accept donations of tissue boxes, so you feel much obliged to buy them some. You get the idea, but by the end of year one, you've spent a good amount of money.
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Then for the rest of elementary school, the cycle starts over: you usually have to buy more supplies as your child has used up a good amount of their old ones, and your child has to buy even more clothes. Then there's the book fair: where all your child wants to buy is books, and not to mention all the other scholastic book orders they bring home. And this is just elementary school.
Once middle school hits, there's the usual rebuying clothes and lunch supplies, and then there's extracurricular. Your child may join a club that has dues to be a part of, or that club may have hidden fees like going on a field trip. In middle school, there's also usually a yearly middle school dance, which again costs money to go to. Then there're the fundraisers/ restaurant nights that give money to your school, and of course, your child wants any excuse to eat out.
Then in high school, there's even more. On top of all the usual fees, there's class dues, fundraisers for your class and clubs, club dues, and more fees with clubs. Let's say you do a sport: you have to pay to be in the sport and then pay more for uniforms and new equipment when you need it. Then there's homecoming and prom, which come with not only ticket cost, but the cost to buy new clothes. Senior year alone comes with many fees, like graduation gear, senior shirt, and college application dues.
Basically, it goes to show that there is a never-ending cycle of fees that go along with school. There's always money you spend on your child, in and out of school. The next time you go spending money on school, tally it up, see how much it comes out to.
