• Revenues for Public Elementary and Secondary Education
• Current Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education
• Current Expenditures per Student
• Expenditures for Instruction
• Total Expenditures
• Reference

These and other financial data on public elementary and secondary education are collected and reported each year by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education. The data are part of the "National Public Education Financial Survey" (NPEFS), one of the components of the Common Core of Data (CCD) collection of surveys. These data were collected from March to September 2003. Editing and imputations were completed in February 2004.

Nearly $420 billion were collected for public elementary and secondary education for school year 2001–02 in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (table 1). Total revenues ranged from a high of around $52 billion in California, which serves about 1 out of every 8 students in the nation, to a low of about $794 million in North Dakota, which serves roughly 1 out of every 449 students in the nation. Nationally, revenues increased an average of 4.7 percent over the previous year's revenues of $401 billion (in unadjusted dollars). The greatest part of education revenues came from state and local governments, which together provided nearly $387 billion, or 92.1 percent of all revenues (table 2).

The federal government's contribution to education revenues made up $33 billion. The relative contributions from these levels of government can be expressed as portions of the typical education dollar (figure 1). Local sources for school year 2001–02 made up 43 cents of every dollar in revenue, state revenues comprised 49 cents, and the remaining 8 cents came from federal sources.

Among states with more than one school district, revenues from local sources ranged from 13.8 percent in New Mexico to 62.4 percent in Nevada (table 2).² Revenues from state sources also showed a wide distribution in their share of total revenues. The state revenue share of total revenues was 31.5 percent in Nevada and 72.0 percent in New Mexico. Federal revenues ranged from 4.2 percent in New Jersey to 16.8 percent in Alaska. Federal sources contributed 10 percent or more of the revenues in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Current expenditures for public education in 2001–02 totaled approximately $368 billion (table 3). This represents a $20 billion (5.8 percent) increase over expenditures in the previous school year ($348 billion in unadjusted dollars). Nearly $227 billion in current expenditures went for instruction. Another $127 billion were expended for a cluster of services that support instruction. Another $15 billion were spent on noninstructional services.

Expressed in terms of the typical education dollar, instructional expenditures accounted for approximately 61 cents of the education dollar for current expenditures (figure 2). Instructional expenditures include teacher salaries and benefits, supplies (e.g., textbooks), and purchased services. About 34 cents of the education dollar went for support services, which include operation and maintenance of buildings, school administration, transportation, and other student and school support activities (e.g., student counseling, libraries, and health services). Just over 4 cents of every education dollar went to noninstructional activities, which include school meals and enterprise activities, such as bookstores.

Most states were closely clustered around the national average (61.5 percent) in terms of the share of current expenditures that were spent on instruction; all but five states and the District of Columbia spent more than 58 percent of their current expenditures on instruction (table 4). These states were Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Two states spent about two-thirds of their current expenditures on instruction. These states were Maine (66.6 percent) and New York (68.3 percent).

Figure 1. The public education dollar: Revenues by source: School year 2001–02

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey, " 2001–02.

In 2001–02, the 50 states and the District of Columbia spent an average of $7,734 in current expenditures for every pupil in membership (table 5). This represents a 4.9 percent increase in current expenditures per student from the previous school year ($7,376 in unadjusted dollars). The median of the state per pupil expenditures was $7,380, indicating that one-half of all states educated students at a cost of less than $7,380 per student. Four states-New Jersey ($11,793), New York ($11,218), Connecticut ($10,577), and Massachusetts ($10,232)-expended more than $10,000 per pupil. The District of Columbia, which comprises a single urban district, spent $12,102 per pupil. Only one state, Utah, had expenditures of less than $5,000 for each pupil in membership ($4,900).

On average, for every student in 2001–02, about $4,755 was spent for instructional services. Expenditures per pupil for instruction ranged from $3,197 in Utah to $7,660 in New York. Support services expenditures per pupil were highest in the District of Columbia ($5,726) and New Jersey ($4,454) and lowest in Tennessee ($1,789), Mississippi ($1,781), and Utah ($1,435). Expenditures per pupil for noninstructional services such as food services were $322 for the nation.

Expenditures for instruction totaled more than $226 billion for school year 2001–02 (table 6). Over $162 billion went for salaries for teachers and instructional aides. Benefits for instructional staff made up almost $42 billion, bringing the total for salaries and benefits for teachers and teacher aides to $204 billion. Instructional supplies, including textbooks, made up over $11 billion. (Expenditures for computers and desks are not considered current expenditures, but are otherwise part of replacement equipment in table 7.) Expenditures for purchased services were nearly $7 billion. These expenditures include the costs for contract teachers (who are not on the school district's payroll), educational television, computer-assisted instruction, and rental equipment for instruction. Tuition expenditures for sending students to out-of-state schools and nonpublic schools within the state totaled over $3 billion.

Figure 2. The public education dollar: Current expenditures by function: School year 2001–02

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey, " 2001–02.

Total expenditures made by school districts came to approximately $435 billion in the 2001–02 school year (table 7). About $368 billion of total expenditures were current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education. An additional $43 billion went for facilities acquisition and construction, $7 billion for replacement equipment, and another $10 billion for interest payments on debt. The remaining amount ($7 billion) was spent on other programs, such as community services and adult education, which are not part of public elementary and secondary education.

St. John, E. (2003). Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2000–01 (NCES 2003-362). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

¹ Comparisons are based on the previous edition of this report, Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2000–01 (St. John 2003).

² Hawaii and the District of Columbia have only one school district each and thus are not comparable to other states.

¹Value affected by redistribution of reported values to correct for missing data items.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. National totals do not include outlying areas. Local revenues include intermediate revenues.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2001–02.

¹Value contains imputation for missing data. Imputed value is less than 2 percent of total expenditures in any one state.

²Value affected by redistribution of reported values to correct for missing data items.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. National totals do not include outlying areas.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2001–02.

¹Distribution affected by redistribution of reported values or imputations to correct for missing items.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. National totals do not include outlying areas.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2001–02.

¹Prekindergarten students were imputed, affecting total student count and per pupil expenditure calculation. Prekindergarten students and tuition expenditures (included in Instruction) were imputed in Tennessee.

²Value affected by redistribution of reported expenditure values to correct for missing data items.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. National totals do not include outlying areas.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2001–02.

¹Value contains imputation for missing data. Imputed value is less than 2 percent of total expenditures in any one state.

²Value affected by redistribution of reported values to correct for missing data items.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. National totals do not include outlying areas.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2001–02.

¹Value contains imputation for missing data. Imputed value is less than 2 percent of total expenditures in any one state.

²Value affected by redistribution of reported values to correct for missing data items.

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. National totals do not include outlying areas.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2001–02.