That tormenting “school bells ring” jingle for Robert Hall clothing stores is no longer around to remind children that their summer vacation is about to end. But nonetheless, school is beginning or already under way for fully one in four American youngsters and adults enrolled in the nation’s more than 95,000 public elementary and secondary schools, 3,200 charter schools and nearly 4,300 degree-granting colleges, as well as for the 1.1 million who are home-schooled.
The United States Census Bureau has computed dozens of statistics like these about the school year. This month alone, it found, Americans will spend an estimated $7.1 billion on shopping at family clothing stores and $2.1 billion at bookstores, much of it presumably for back-to-school purchases. It is a volume that is exceeded only around the winter holidays.
To help defray the $13,425 average tuition, room and board for in-state students at four-year public colleges and universities, and the $36,510 bill at private institutions, half the nation’s full-time college students will be employed. One in five high school students will have jobs, too.
Is college worth it? The Census Bureau says workers 18 and older with an advanced degree earned $79,946 on average in 2005, compared with $54,689 for those with bachelor’s degrees, $29,448 for those with only a high school diploma, and $19,915 for those workers without one.
Additional statistics about the nation’s students and school systems are in the graphic.