By Jack Armstrong ’15

You wouldn’t think that changing a font to one slimmer and lighter would significantly save ink and paper costs; however, 14-year-old Suvir Mirchandani recently found if the U.S. government changed the font on thousands of documents from Times New Roman to Garamond it could save close to $234 million. Mirchandani’s findings also show paper use would be decreased as well because Garamond is slimmer and more text can be fit on one sheet of paper.

By considering how slimmer font choices factor into the cost of paper and ink, MCPS could save money. The county needs to be more conscientious about these simple strategies that could have a beneficial impact financially. If there was also limitations on individual copy and paper use, in addition to requiring the use of a slimmer font like Garamond, MCPS could save even more money. The money saved by using less paper and ink could help fund new technology and help make the schools more technologically advanced, which has been shown to provide a more engaging learning experience. Even though there is a push for everything to go digital, realistically there will always be paper around. So why not use less of it and have more money for new technology at the same time?