Why Are Prices for School Supplies like Copy Paper Skyrocketing in 2025?
In 2025, conversations about school supplies are suddenly all about the skyrocketing price of copy paper. District buyers updating their school supplies catalogs are discovering that the once‑mundane case of copy paper now behaves like a volatile commodity.
As fears of tariffs take hold with suppliers, school supplies budgets are being redrawn daily, and copy paper—still the single largest consumable by volume—sits squarely in the crosshairs. The math is brutal: every uptick in tariffs multiplies across pallets of copy paper, leaving administrators scrambling to stretch their shrinking pool of school supplies dollars. And with most school districts working with lower budgets this year to begin with, it’s a perfect storm.
Tariff Turmoil: School Supplies Budgets Under Siege
State funding for K12 schools has never recovered from the Great Recession. COVID emergency funding brought some relief in the form of ESSER funds. But these monies ran out in September 2024. Most school districts in the US were working with lower budgets for the 2024-2025 school year. Then came a new presidential administration intent on cutting federal spending and implementing tariffs. These are the conditions facing school districts as they prepare for the 2025-2026 school year.
A proposed 25% duty on Canadian and Mexican imports has now detonated the predictable price sheet for school supplies. Why? Because Canada supplies the raw materials used in paper products like toilet tissue and paper towels. They also produce copy paper. U.S. mills and paper companies rely on Canadian materials to make their products. And Mexico processes and converts U.S. recycled paper into corrugated boxes, accounting for approximately 30% of the market.
These two products from our neighbors touch almost every consumable a school district buys. When the American Forest & Paper Association warns of “serious disruption” to cross‑border chains, anyone who signs a school supplies purchase order should brace for impact.
District CFOs already feel the tremors. One Illinois district’s most recent copy paper RFQ returned quotes ranging 120 % from low to high—a chasm wide enough to blow up an entire instructional materials budget. Add in toner that comes predominantly from China, and school supplies purchasing has become as volatile as the commodities market.
What’s the solution? Cuts. And the only type of paper that can be cut from the school supplies budget for any school district is copy paper.
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Copy Paper’s Unique Exposure in the School Supplies Mix
Why does copy paper cause the biggest budgetary hit?
- Volume gravity. Even a small elementary school runs through tens of thousands of sheets per month.
- Limited stockpiling. There’s only so much temperature-controlled storage space available. Paper absorbs moisture…
- Multiple tariff crossings. Tree pulp, jumbo corrugated rolls, and finished reams trip the border toll many times in the production process, much like the automotive industry.
- Inelastic demand. Teachers rarely see the invoice, so usage doesn’t self‑correct when prices spike.
Add a tariff and the result is a cost shock without quick relief—precisely the nightmare scenario for anyone stewarding the school supplies budget.
Toilet Paper vs. Copy Paper: What Wins?
When parents think of school supplies, it’s notebooks, pens, and markers. Facilities managers for school districts have a different list. And theirs follows an unwritten hierarchy based on necessity. At the top sit toilet tissue, paper towels, cafeteria liners, and medical supplies— items tied to health codes or legal compliance. Nobody will risk a hygiene scandal to save a few bucks. Consequently, discretionary classroom printing— warm‑ups, worksheets, study guides— becomes the first casualty when the copy paper line on the district’s spreadsheet starts bleeding red.
Teachers love handouts, but love doesn’t pay for their copy paper. The only way for school districts to survive simultaneous budget cuts and inflation is to make permanent changes where they can.
We can all agree that toilet paper can’t be rationed without negative consequences. But teachers can stop using copy paper with little to no fallout. If they move their handouts to digital delivery, it will actually enhance the classroom experience for most students.
Classwork.com Turns Copy Paper into Digital Clicks
How It Protects the School Supplies Budget
- Upload–to–interact in minutes. Drag any PDF, Word doc, or AI prompt into the editor, drop response zones, and publish.
- Twenty‑five technology‑enhanced item types mirror state assessments—no need to print bubble sheets.
- Instant autograding & analytics feed scores straight to Google Classroom, Canvas, or Schoology; teachers skip midnight stacks of graded copy paper.
- AI Assist drafts standards‑aligned questions from any passage, so nobody stares at a blank screen.
- Any‑device access—Chromebooks, iPads, or phones—ensures students complete work even when binders stay at home.
Teachers: From Copy‑Room Addicts to Digital Advocates
Using copy paper handouts in the classroom is a bad habit– students disengage and important, expensive formative data goes into the trash. During the pandemic shutdowns, teachers were forced to go digital and chose Classwork.com because they could make their PDFs interactive and autograded. But as soon as classrooms opened again, most teachers went right back to using cases of copy paper each semester.
Leadership has seen that their instructional staff can handle the digital classroom. But wanting to be supportive of their teachers has caused schools to continue an expensive and detrimental addiction. Imagine a different way to be supportive of every stakeholder through the use of digital learning platforms at your school. Some of the benefits include happier students, better formative data collection, and less administrative tasks for your teachers.
Financial Scenario: Copy Paper Savings by the Numbers for School Districts
| 4,000 Student District Scenario | Sheets Eliminated | Cases Saved | Dollars Redirected* |
|---|---|---|---|
1 sheet/day per student | .72 M | 144 | $9 k – $12 k |
2 sheets/day per student | 1.4 M | 288 | $18 k – $24 k |
*Assumes $65 – $85 per case under tariff pressure. Some districts print three or four multi-page classwork activities daily; savings scale accordingly.
Action Plan: Safeguard Copy Paper, Upgrade Learning
- Declare an essential‑only copy policy. Reserve copy paper for IEPs, test backups, and health forms.
- Launch a 30‑day Classwork.com pilot in at least three departments and attend training(s).
- Publish weekly savings dashboards to staff and board members. (Actual paper savings usually pay for Classwork.com within 90 days.)
- Roll out districtwide before another school supplies contract locks you into inflated rates.
The Bottom Line
A tariff‑driven spike in school supplies costs is not a passing cloud; it’s a multi‑year weather pattern. Migrating instructional activities off copy paper and onto Classwork.com is how you can weather the storm. Students get richer, faster feedback, teachers get autograded real time data, and your school supplies budget gets some relief.
