These students need protection from budget cuts in their classrooms. If we succeed in effectively educating these students, the savings overall will be enormous. In this area, we need to address the impacts of income inequality in the schools. This is a good place to start, but these students need more than backpacks. Each eligible school supply item must be priced at $20 or less, and each eligible article of clothing and footwear must be priced at $100 or less. Purchases of certain school supplies, clothing and footwear are exempt from the Virginia sales tax. Virginia sales tax holiday for school supplies and clothing is Aug. Help these students get started on the right foot by contributing to one of the many local backpack drives. In Arlington, more than 32 percent of the county’s 23,000-plus students are poor enough to receive subsidized meals more than 7,000 students. That’s more than 8,000 of the city’s 13,000-plus students. In the City of Alexandria, about 60 percent of the Alexandria Public Schools students are poor enough to qualify for subsidized meals. For many of those children, having a fully equipped backpack on the first day of school is out of reach. That’s more than 50,000 children in Fairfax County who are going through the summer without their usual access to breakfast and lunch. In Fairfax County Public Schools, more than 27 percent of more than 184,000 students are poor enough to qualify for subsidized meals.
In our affluent area, there are many poor families. We live in an area where many if not most families have the means and desire to do almost whatever it takes to give their children the best chances for success.īut for thousands of students, families lack the financial resources to equip them for success on the first day of school and beyond. They’ve already had multiple shopping trips, online and otherwise, to be sure they have the supplies and extras they need. Many local students will be concerned about what they wear, who they will see, what it will be like. The first day of school each year is fraught with anticipation and anxiety.