How Much the U.S. Students Spend on Education Per Year

A report from the Organization For Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) states that the United States spends an average of $16,268 per year to educate its citizens, compared to a global average of $10,759. But this spending is decreasing down to 4% between 2010 and 2014.

However, on the broader level, all that money does not convert into the fruitful results for Unites States students. According to a report of the National Centre on Education and the Economy (NCEE), the average student of Singapore is 3.5 years ahead of the U.S. student in mathematics. In addition to this, Singapore students are 1.5 years ahead in reading and 2.5 in sciences. The United States has a diversity of students, but out of the students from Singapore consistently outrank the U.S. students based on education.

Measuring education expenditure can be difficult, especially in a country as vast as the United States. However, the National Association of College Stores mentioned that students spend $701 between 2007 and 2008 on education material. Last year records show a decline in the expending as compared to 2007-08. The United States students pay $415 on their education material.

Students Spending on Course Material

A decade ago, students on an average spent 701 dollars on course materials in 2007-08, and now they are paying under 500 dollars. Estella McCollum, the vice president of research and consulting at NACS, says that the spending dropped as the use of free and lower-cost material increased.

The reports by NACS show that 32 percent of students are using free course materials, compared with 25% in last year and 19 % in 2016. However, 60 percent of students said that their professors provided them with free materials to study. Nearly 17 percent of students admitted that they illegally download course materials either from torrent or peer to peer sharing sites.

Sources reflected that this illegal downloading is happening as students have to wait longer for purchasing course materials. This report compiled responses from more than 34,000 students in the United States and Canada. For the last four years, the number of students buying, renting, and borrowing course material stayed relatively flat. Since only 44 percent of students rented, 83 percent purchased course material, and 12 percent borrowed.

Reasons for Spending Low on Course Materials

The following are some reasons given by students for spending low on course materials.

·     Materials Acquisition Remain Stable

The numbers of students who purchased rented and borrowed remain stable. There is 12 percent of students who borrowed, 44 percent leased, and 83 percent purchased course material. This data is stable for the last four years.

·     Increased Use of Free Materials

Students are sharing borrowing and downloading course materials from each other. A survey shows that in 2018, 32 % of students used free methods to obtain course materials. In addition to this, in 2019, 22 percent of students reported that they download the course material of college from the internet.

·     Use of Digital Content

As technology has captured every aspect of education, students usually download digital textbooks to study. It is the main reason behind the 81% fall of 2017 as compared to 75% of 2015. Digital content is any data that helps students to study online.

·     Students Have to Wait Longer

Students have to wait a little longer to get their course materials from the college. Only 34% of students have their course materials before classes started. In 2018, the number of students fell from 21% to 25%until after the first week of the classes.