• Revenues per Student
• Total Expenditures per Student
• Current Expenditures per Student
• Variations in Types of Districts
• Reference

Only regular education school districts reporting student counts and matching the CCD "Local Education Agency Universe Survey" file were included in this analysis.

In the 1999–2000 school year, the median school district received $7,693 per student in revenues from state, local, and federal sources (table 1). The median revenue per student indicates that half of the districts received less than $7,693 per student and half of the districts received more than $7,693 per student.

Revenues and expenditures of school districts vary both within states and across states. Reporting the revenue per student at the 10th percentile and the 90th percentile is one way of communicating this variation or disparity in revenues. The national revenue per student at the 10th percentile ($5,940) indicates that 10 percent of all school districts received $5,940 or less in revenues per student. At the 90th percentile, the top 10 percent of districts had revenues in excess of $11,952 per pupil. Eighty percent of all school districts received between $5,940 and $11,952 per student in revenues. The 90/10 ratio indicates the disparity between revenues at the 10th and 90th percentiles. The higher this factor, the wider the difference or disparity between revenues at the 10th and 90th percentiles. For the nation as a whole, revenues going to the 90th percentile school district were twice as high as revenues going to the 10th percentile school district.

The numbers of students and school districts included in the analysis are shown in table 1. Hawaii and the District of Columbia have only one school district each, so it was not possible to report revenues at the 10th and 90th percentiles, or to calculate a 90/10 ratio. The data on the numbers of students and districts within each state also show the variation in the organization of education across the country. For example, Florida, with over 2 million students, has 67 school districts, whereas Nebraska, with fewer than 300,000 students, has 570 school districts.

The median revenues per student varied from $5,354 per student in Mississippi to $14,842 in Alaska. The median revenues per student were lower in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Utah than those in 90 percent of the school districts in the country. The median revenues per student in Alaska, the District of Columbia, and Vermont were higher than the median revenues per student in 90 percent of the school districts in the country. The 90/10 ratio indicates that the variation in revenues per student was greatest in Montana, and lowest in Maryland and West Virginia.

In 1999–2000, the median total expenditure by school districts in the nation was $7,463 per student (table 2). This included current operating expenditures, capital outlays for school construction and equipment, and expenditures that are for programs outside of elementary/secondary education such as adult education and community service programs. Total expenditures also include interest on long-term debt, payments to other school districts, and payments to state and local governments.

The data in tables 2 and 3 in the individual categories do not sum to the totals because the median district in total expenditures is not the same district that generates the median in the specific expenditure categories (such as current expenditures or capital outlay). The school district representing the median expenditure per student for current expenditures ($6,464) is unlikely to be the same as the district with the total expenditure median of $7,463 per student.

Total expenditures per student ranged between $5,723 and $11,643 for 80 percent of the school districts in the country. School districts with the highest 10 percent of total expenditures per pupil spent twice as much money per student as those districts with the lowest 10 percent of expenditures. The range in per student spending was similar for instruction, support services, and current expenditures. Expenditures for noninstructional services indicated a somewhat wider variation in per pupil expenditures between districts with high noninstructional expenditures per pupil and districts with low noninstructional expenditures. This is possibly due to the inclusion of expenditures for enterprise operations that are only reported in 30 states.

Expenditures for capital outlay, programs other than elementary/secondary education, transfer payments, and interest on long-term debt have a large difference between per pupil expenditures in districts at the 90th percentile and the 10th percentile. Per student spending on capital outlay (school construction and equipment) in districts with per pupil expenditures above the 90th percentile was more than 17 times that of low-spending districts. Small districts or districts with stable student populations do not need to be able to make large expenditures for school construction, whereas large districts or districts experiencing a growing population of children need to spend more money on school construction. Often, districts will build several schools at the same time, showing a large expenditure for capital outlays one year and small expenditures for subsequent years.

Per pupil spending for programs other than elementary/secondary education was more than 20 times greater in high-spending districts than the national median ($143 vs. $7). The adult education and community service programs that make up most of the other program spending do not exist in many school districts. At least 10 percent of all school districts do not have programs other than elementary and secondary education, nor do they have interest payments or payments to other school districts or governments.

Payments to other school districts are not included in the total expenditures reported here. In most cases, these are transfer payments to educate children in other districts. These amounts are reported as payments to other districts by the sending district and are included in the current expenditures reported by the receiving district. The students are only counted by the receiving district, which actually educates the child. Thus, reporting the expenditure for only the receiving district leads to more accurate per pupil estimates.

Median total expenditures per student ranged from $14,320 in Alaska to $5,624 in Arkansas (table 3). The median total expenditure per student was over $10,000 in Alaska, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia. Median per pupil expenditures for classroom instruction ranged from $7,963 in Alaska to $3,029 in Utah. With the exception of Alaska, the eight states with the highest median expenditures per student for instruction were in the Northeast.¹ Median per student expenditures for capital projects (primarily school construction) ranged from $1,237 in the District of Columbia to $127 in Rhode Island.

Because of the variation in programs run by school districts and the large swings in school construction expenditures, researchers typically use current expenditures when reporting and comparing school district expenditures. Current expenditures are expenditures for the day-to-day operations of schools and school districts. They do not include expenditures for construction, equipment, debt financing, and programs outside of public elementary/secondary education.

Current expenditures per student by state are presented in table 4. The median expenditure per student for the nation was $6,464. Per pupil spending in districts at the 90th percentile was almost twice that of per pupil spending in districts at the 10th percentile (i.e., the 90/10 ratio was 1.9). Spending in districts at the 90th percentile was less than 50 percent higher than spending in districts at the 10th percentile in 23 states (i.e., the 90/10 ratio was less than 1.5). The median current expenditure per student in Alaska, the District of Columbia, and New York was larger than the current expenditure per student in 90 percent of all districts in the nation.

The five states with the highest 90/10 ratio in current expenditures per pupil were Alaska, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota. This ratio were lowest in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, and West Virginia. In these six states, current expenditures per student at the 90th percentile were less than 25 percent greater than spending at the 10th percentile.

District-level analyses and comparisons can be complicated by the variety of administrative structures that exist across the nation in regular school districts. States such as Florida, Maryland, Nevada, and West Virginia have large districts that are coterminous with counties and encompass all levels and types of public schools. School districts in other states may exist in small communities with only one school, or in larger communities where all elementary schools are in one school district and all secondary schools are in another. In some states, all special education schools are administered by a few specific districts; while in other states each district may have all kinds of different schools and programs.² This variety in the types of school districts makes comparison of school districts difficult.

The information presented in tables 1 through 4 is based on all regular education school districts reporting student counts that are reported on the CCD "Local Education Agency Universe Survey." Table 5 presents current expenditures per pupil in regular unified districts only. Unified districts are school districts with both elementary and secondary education programs. The median current expenditure per student for the nation was $6,389, with 80 percent of all districts ranging between $5,205 and $9,208. The 90/10 ratio was 1.8, indicating a slight reduction in variation of per student spending compared with all regular school districts (1.9) reported in table 4. In eight states, less than half of the school districts were unified (Arizona, California, Illinois, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont). In two states, Montana and Vermont, fewer than half of the students attended schools in unified districts. Of the five states listed above as having the widest disparity in current expenditures per student at the 10th and 90th percentiles, this disparity was reduced in Arizona, Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota when the analysis was limited to unified school districts.³

Table 1. Revenues per student for public elementary and secondary education, by state: School year 1999–2000

Table 2. Total expenditures per pupil, for elementary and secondary education: School year 1999–2000

Table 3. Median school district expenditures per pupil, by function and by state: School year 1999–2000

Table 4. Current expenditures per student for public elementary and secondary education, by state: School year 1999–2000

Table 5. Current expenditures per student for unified districts, by state: School year 1999–2000