This report analyzes revenues and expenditures for elementary and secondary public education in the United States. The major subtotals analyzed in chapters 2 through 4 include total, federal, state, and local and intermediate revenues; total expenditures (current and capital expenditures combined); current expenditures; and selected expenditure functions (instruction, support services, facilities, replacement equipment, other programs, interest on debt, and noninstruction). Additional revenue and expenditure items such as local and intermediate revenues by different types of taxes for each year and expenditures for school administration for each year are included in the tables in appendix B. All revenues and expenditures have been analyzed at the national and state levels.
The national totals include the 50 states and the District of Columbia5. Major subtotals are examined as full amounts, per pupil amounts, percent change across the 13-year period, and primary data items as a percentage of totaled data items. The per pupil amounts are calculated by dividing revenue or expenditure items by pupil membership for a given year. Pupil membership is the count of pupils enrolled on or about October 1 of each school year. Enrollment data are taken from the CCD State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education.
An annual percentage change from the previous year is calculated by subtracting the previous year's data from the current year's data and dividing the difference by the previous year's data. This calculation is completed for each 2-year period of the 13 years of the study, totaling 12 periods. A 13-year percent change has also been calculated by subtracting the data for FY 90 from the data for FY 02, and then dividing by the data from FY 90.
Percentages of primary data items to totals are provided to show the proportion of revenues from sources and the distribution of expenditures across functions and objects. These percentages are calculated by dividing the detail amount by the total amount.
State analyses follow the same model as the national analyses although major subtotals also consider the range between states. State comparisons are made using per pupil amounts, percentage changes, and percentage distributions. These calculations make it possible to compare states regardless of their size.
The public education systems of the District of Columbia and Hawaii are different than the systems in other states. The District of Columbia is a single urban school district not associated with any state. Therefore its local and intermediate revenues are proportionately higher than those reported in other states and its state revenues are zero. Because the District of Columbia is an urban school district, its per pupil expenditures tend to be higher than the per pupil expenditures reported by states. Hawaii provides public education through a single school district that is funded almost entirely through state revenues; therefore its local and intermediate revenues are proportionately lower than those reported in other states and its state revenues are proportionately higher than those in other states. In the following discussions of the data, when DC or Hawaii is noted as an outlier, data for other states are supplied in order to provide a clearer insight into public education revenues and expenditures.
