Every year, the start of the school year brings with it a range of emotions for students: excitement and joy for some, stress and fear for others. Parents are sometimes overwhelmed by another anxiety as the return to school approaches: that of not being able to afford the purchase of school supplies. Due to inflation, the problem has become central for less well-off households.
During the legislative campaign, the subject came back to the table thanks to the proposals of the New Popular Front and Ensemble. The alliance of left-wing parties promised in its program “completely free schooling” for the school canteen, transportation, extracurricular activities and supplies. As for the former presidential majority, it advocated the establishment of group purchases to reduce costs.
Lille, the pioneer in this field
Without waiting to know who will be appointed to the government, some cities have already taken the lead. This is particularly the case of Marseille. Last week, its mayor, Benoît Payan, announced on social networks: “92,000 school supply kits will be distributed free of charge to all our schoolchildren from kindergarten to CM2 at the start of the school year”. A measure, already taken last year by the Phocaean municipality, and whose cost was then estimated at 5 million euros. The pioneer in this area remains Lille, which, for the fourth consecutive year, will set up this type of operation. This year, Bordeaux, in turn, will offer their supplies in September to the 2,071 CP students in the city. Without distinction.
An obviously commendable gesture, but which tends to perpetuate the illusion of magic money. In these three cases, the communities use the same misleading vocabulary when talking about “free school supplies”. But as is often the case, free is chimerical. It is the taxpayer who, in one way or another, finances this system via local taxes.
Although the financial situation of the municipalities is considered to be generally good by the Court of Auditors, this type of measure is not painless. Especially since there is already a back-to-school allowance, paid this Tuesday, August 20 to 3 million families, and the amount of which has been increased by 4.6% to take inflation into account. A budget of some 2 billion euros.