As a nation heads back to school, a look at the numbers
NY TimesPosted: August 29th, 2007 by R. Lee Wrights
“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.” (08/29/07)
