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Education Statistics Quarterly
Vol 5, Issue 2, Topic: Elementary and Secondary Education
Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2000–01
By: Elise St. John
 
This article was originally published as a Statistics in Brief report. The universe data are from the "National Public Education Financial Survey" (NPEFS), part of the Common Core of Data (CCD). Technical notes and definitions from the original report have been omitted.
 
 

Nearly $401 billion of revenues were raised to fund public education for grades prekindergarten through 12 in school year 2000–01 (fiscal year 2001). Current expenditures (those excluding construction, equipment, and debt financing) came to just over $348 billion. About three out of every five current expenditure dollars were spent on teachers, textbooks, and other instructional services and supplies. An average of $7,376 was spent on each student—an increase of 6.7 percent from $6,911 in school year 1999–2000 (in unadjusted dollars).* Total expenditures for public education, including school construction, debt financing, community services, and adult education programs, came to $412 billion.

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 2002. Editing and imputations were completed in February 2003.


About $401 billion were collected for public elementary and secondary education for school year 2000–01 in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (table 1). Total revenues ranged from a high of around $51 billion in California, which serves about 1 out of every 8 students in the nation, to a low of about $768 million in North Dakota, which serves roughly 1 out of every 432 students in the nation. Nationally, revenues increased an average of 7.5 percent over the previous year's revenues of $373 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 $372 billion, or 92.7 percent of all revenues.

The federal government contribution to education revenues made up the remaining $29 billion. The relative contributions from these levels of government can be expressed as portions of the typical education dollar (figure 1). As in the previous school year, local and intermediate sources for school year 2000–01 made up 43 cents of every dollar in revenue; state revenues comprised 50 cents; and the remaining 7 cents came from federal sources.

Among states with more than one school district, revenues from local sources ranged from 15.0 percent (New Mexico) to 66.3 percent (Nevada) of total revenues (table 2). Hawaii and the District of Columbia have only one school district each and thus are not comparable to other states. 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 Nevada (28.6 percent) and just over 70 percent in New Mexico (71.1 percent) and Vermont (70.7 percent). Federal revenues ranged from 3.9 percent in New Jersey to 15.8 percent in Alaska. Federal sources contributed more than 10 percent of the revenues in Alaska, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

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Current expenditures for public education in 2000–01 totaled over $348 billion (table 3). This represents a $24 billion (7.5 percent) increase over expenditures in the previous school year ($324 billion in unadjusted dollars). Over $214 billion in current expenditures went for instruction. Another $119 billion were expended for a cluster of services that support instruction. Nearly $15 billion were spent on noninstructional services.

When expressed in terms of the typical education dollar, instructional expenditures accounted for approximately 62 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 Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Three states spent about two-thirds of their current expenditures on instruction. These states were New York (67.9 percent), Maine (66.9 percent), and Massachusetts (66.3 percent).

Figure 1. The public education dollar: Revenues by source: School year 2000–01
Figure 1. The public education dollar: Revenues by source: School year 2000-01

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2000–01.

Figure 2. The public education dollar: Current expenditures by function: School year 2000–01
Figure 2. The public education dollar: Current expenditures by function: School year 2000-01

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 2000–01.

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In 2000–01, the 50 states and the District of Columbia spent an average of $7,376 in current expenditures for every pupil in membership (table 5). This represents a 6.7 percent increase in current expenditures per student from the previous school year ($6,911 in unadjusted dollars). Three states—New Jersey ($11,248), New York ($10,716), and Connecticut ($10,127)—expended more than $10,000 per pupil. The District of Columbia, which comprises a single urban district, spent $12,046 per pupil. Only one state, Utah, had expenditures of less than $5,000 for each pupil in membership ($4,674). The median of the state per pupil expenditures was $6,930, indicating that one-half of all states educated students at a cost of less than $6,930 per student.

On average, for every student in 2000–01, about $4,539 was spent for instructional services. Expenditures per pupil for instruction ranged from $3,012 in Arizona to $7,274 in New York. Support services expenditures per pupil were highest in New Jersey ($4,240) and lowest in Utah ($1,369). Expenditures per pupil for noninstructional services such as food services were $309 for the nation.

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Expenditures for instruction totaled approximately $214 billion for school year 2000–01 (table 6). Over $154 billion went for salaries for teachers and instructional aides. Benefits for instructional staff made up an additional $40 billion, bringing the total for salaries and benefits for teachers and teacher aides to $194 billion. Instructional supplies, including textbooks, made up over $10 billion. (Expenditures for computers and desks are not considered current expenditures, but are reported as replacement equipment in table 7.) Expenditures for purchased services were over $6 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 $2 billion.

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Total expenditures made by school districts came to almost $412 billion in the 2000–01 school year (table 7). About $348 billion of total expenditures were current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education. An additional $39 billion went for facilities acquisition and construction, $8 billion for replacement equipment, and another $10 billion for interest payments on debt. The remaining amount ($6 billion) was spent on other programs, such as community services and adult education, which are not part of public elementary and secondary education.

Total expenditures include all types of expenditures by school districts and other public elementary/secondary education agencies. Researchers generally use current expenditures instead of total expenditures when comparing education spending between states or across time because current expenditures exclude expenditures for capital outlay, which tend to have dramatic increases and decreases from year to year. Also, the current expenditures commonly reported are for public elementary and secondary education only. Many school districts also support community services, adult education, private education, and other programs, which are included in total expenditures. These programs and the extent to which they are funded by school districts vary greatly both across states and within states.

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List of Tables:

  • Table 1.—Revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 2000–01
  • Table 2.—Percentage distribution of revenue for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 2000–01
  • Table 3.—Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 2000–01
  • Table 4.—Percentage distribution of current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 2000–01
  • Table 5.—Student membership and current expenditures per pupil in membership for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 2000–01
  • Table 6.—Current expenditures for instruction for public elementary and secondary education, by state: School year 2000–01
  • Table 7.—Total expenditures for public elementary and secondary education and other related programs, by state: School year 2000–01
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Footnotes

* Comparisons are based on the previous edition of this report, Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1999–2000 (Johnson 2002).

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Johnson, F. (2002). Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1999–2000 (NCES 2002–367). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

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Data source: The NCES Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey" (NPEFS), 2000–01.

For technical information, see the complete report:

St. John, E. (2003). Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2000–01 (NCES 2003–362).

Author affiliation: E. St. John, Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI).

For questions about content, contact Frank Johnson (frank.johnson@ed.gov).

To obtain the complete report (NCES 2003–362), visit the NCES Electronic Catalog (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch).


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