Has anyone else seen this?!!!!!?

$1,000 is definately too much. Maybe those children have been spoiled, but budgets are subjective. $100, maybe $200 at the maximum sounds reasonable (if they had a few pairs of clothes that were worn-out). Those children need to save that $1,000 for college. Going back-to-school at a college or university will set you back several hundreds of dollars...on textbooks alone.