Price crunch: What happens when you can’t pay?

More than a third of Johnson County students qualified to receive state aid because their families couldn’t afford their textbooks last year.

Low-income families who qualify for the free and reduced-price lunch program also qualify for the state to cover textbook fees. Last year, 37 percent of the area’s 24,805 students qualified for state assistance.

Edinburgh schools has the highest rate of students who qualify for textbook assistance, 63 percent; while Center Grove has the lowest at 19 percent.

But families who qualify for lunch help aren’t the only ones who need help. Each year Center Grove, Clark-Pleasant and Greenwood schools have parents who can’t afford the textbook and classroom technology costs for their students.

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