Back to School Costs Soar: Parents Outraged by €100 Stationery Bill

€100 in Stationery for Back to School: The 'Robbery' a Father Denounces

A child of almost 8 years has just started the school year. His father went to the checkout and paid €100 for school supplies and stationery alone: notebooks, pens, cardstock, glue, and a dictionary. The notebooks, 7 euros each. The pens, almost 3 euros per unit. And one of those notebooks had to be orange, indicating it costs even more simply because of its tonalidad. All of that without counting the textbooks, which are separate and listed at a hefty 45 euros. In a country that has been promoting universal and free education as one of its major achievements for years, the first week of school is paid for twice.

The Breakdown: From €7 Notebooks to €45 Textbooks

Adding up the items, the receipt is more alarming. According to the breakdown cited in the thread, four pens total 11 euros and four notebooks, 28 euros. A pack of paper, 7. A dictionary, 20. And the thread notes that the pens are Pilot Frixion, erasable, which cost around €2.50 each elsewhere but here are almost €3. Then there's the fine print of the school year: 100 euros per extracurricular activity, another amount for early drop-off, a bit more for extended hours, and a common fund for trips. Some convert it to pesetas —almost 17,000 for four items— to grasp the magnitude.

What's striking isn't the isolated price. It's the sum. And that those complaining say they don't choose anything: they buy what's on a closed list, from a school they say is public.

Can a School Force the Purchase of Specific Brand Notebooks?

One of the most debated points is whether the school can demand specific brands. It's pointed out that schools cannot force the purchase of a particular brand of notebook, and if the school is public, it must adhere to public school regulations: demanding a brand would be, at the very least, questionable. The most repeated recommendation is to go to the school council and, if there's no response, to request it in writing with a registered receipt from the school to take the case to educational inspection.

Some go further and argue, based solely on their own suspicion, that commercial criteria weigh more than pedagogical ones in the choice of books and materials. These are suspicions, not proven facts, but they explain why every two years the publisher changes and the exchange programs organized by the AMPAs (Parents' Associations) are abandoned. Others suggest that certain schools act as entry barriers and that the problem isn't the brand, but who decides what to buy.

Chinese Bazaar, Amazon, or Reusing: Where Savings Are Really Made

The first solution offered is the most obvious: don't buy everything at the local stationery store. Some claim that at a bazaar, you can find standard BIC pens for 50 cents or less, PRITT-type glues for 1 euro, and cheaper notebooks, and another message points to boxes of 50 pens for 7 euros on Amazon.

But it's not just about unit price. Against the idea that the bazaar is always the solution, a technical nuance arises: one participant warns that many cheap notebooks use 60-gram paper, almost cigarette paper weight, and won't last a school year; 90-gram packs (Oxford, Artenik) cost around 16 euros for four, according to another message. And then there's the classic less is more: check what material from last year is still usable before opening your wallet.

Where Back to School Costs Zero

International comparisons soon appear. In the Netherlands, primary and secondary school books are provided by the school, and families only cover dictionaries, an atlas, and a laptop. This Chromebook is rented for 13 euros per month, with immediate replacement at the school itself if it breaks or is lost, so the student doesn't miss a day of class.

In Spain, however, the family's calculation includes books that are frequently changed, extracurricular activities, and the growing feeling that public school has become a supermarket where the user pays for the shopping.

The Full Bill and Who Pays for Their Neighbor's Supplies

The expense doesn't end at the stationery store. The initial 100 euros are added to by books, activities, extended transport, and the fund for excursions. And with the second part of the school year comes another bill: the younger sibling, in the third year of kindergarten, with their own list.

At that point, the conversation shifts to a more uncomfortable social tension. Part of the messages point to who covers the supplies for families who cannot pay and if that burden eventually falls on other parents. This is a sensitive issue mixed with suspicions towards specific groups, but the underlying economic reality is clear: when the system doesn't guarantee the materials, someone has to provide them, and that someone is usually another family.

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With these prices, the question is no longer how much a hardcover notebook costs. It's how much longer we will continue to call education 'free' when it is paid for every September at the stationery store. And what if the problem wasn't the notebook, but everything we take for granted?