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

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.

About $305 billion were collected for public elementary and secondary education in SY 1996-97 in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (table 1). Revenues ranged from a high of around $34 billion in California, which serves about 1 out of every 8 students in the nation, to a low of about $643 million in North Dakota, which serves about 1 out of every 380 students. Nationally, revenues increased an average of 6.0 percent over last year's revenues of $288 billion (in unadjusted dollars).

By far, the greatest part of education revenues came from nonfederal sources (state, intermediate, and local governments),^* which together provided about $285 billion, or 93.4 percent of all revenues. The federal government contribution to education revenues made up the remaining $20 billion. The relative contributions from these levels of government can be expressed as portions of the typical education dollar (figure 1). Local and intermediate sources made up 45 cents of every dollar in revenue; state revenues 48 cents; and the remaining 7 cents came from federal sources.

Revenues from local sources made up between 2.4 percent and 89.5 percent of all revenues (table 2). As might be expected, revenues from state sources also showed a wide distribution in their share of total revenues. The state revenue share of total revenues was less than 30 percent in three states: New Hampshire (7.4 percent), Illinois (27.0 percent), and Vermont (28.6 percent); and more than 70 percent in Hawaii (89.5 percent) and New Mexico (73.1 percent). Hawaii and the District of Columbia have only one school district each. Federal revenues ranged from 3.5 percent in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New Jersey to 14.0 percent in Mississippi.

Current expenditures for public education in SY 1996-97 totaled about $270 billion (table 3). This represents a $15 billion (5.9 percent) increase over expenditures in the previous school year ($255 billion in unadjusted dollars). About $167 billion in current expenditures went for instruction. Another $91 billion were expended for a cluster of services that support instruction. Nearly $12 billion were spent on noninstructional services.

Instructional expenditures accounted for about 62 cents out of the education dollar (figure 2). These expenditures include teachers' salaries and benefits, supplies (such as textbooks), and purchased services. Another 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). About 4 cents of every dollar went to non-instructional activities, which include school meals and enterprise activities such as bookstores.

Most states were closely clustered around the national average 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 59 percent of their current expenditures on instruction (table 4). Three states spent more than two-thirds of their current expenditures on instruction. These were Maine (68.2 percent), New York (67.6 percent), and Rhode Island (67.0 percent).

In SY 1996-97, the 50 states and the District of Columbia spent an average of $5,923 for every pupil in membership (table 5). This represents a 4.1 percent increase from the previous year ($5,689). Four states expended more than $8,000 per pupil. These were New Jersey ($9,588), Connecticut ($8,580), New York ($8,525), and Alaska ($8,231). The District of Columbia, which comprises a single urban district, spent $8,048 per pupil. Only one state had expenditures of less than $4,000 for each pupil in membership: Utah ($3,783). The median per pupil expenditure was $5,734, indicating that half of the states educated students at a cost of less than $5,734 per student.

On the average, for every student about $3,665 was spent for instructional services, $1,996 for support services, and $262 for noninstructional purposes.

Figure 1—The public education dollar: Revenues by source: School year 1996-97

Figure 2—The public education dollar: Current expenditures by functions: School year 1996-97

Table 1—Revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1996-97

Table 2—Percentage distribution of revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1996-97

Table 3—Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1996-97
(In thousands of dollars)

Table 4—Percentage distribution of current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1996-97

Table 5—Student membership and current expenditures per pupil in membership for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1996-97

Data source: The Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey" (NPEFS), 1996-97. For technical information, see the complete Statistics in Brief: Johnson, F. (1999). Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1996-1997 (NCES 1999-301). Author affiliation: F. Johnson, NCES. For questions about content, contact Frank Johnson (frank.johnson@ed.gov). To obtain the complete report (NCES 1999-301), call the toll- free ED Pubs number (877-433-7827) or visit the NCES Web Site (http://nces.ed.gov).