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Education Statistics Quarterly
Vol 2, Issue 2, Topic: Featured Topic: The Common Core of Data
Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1997-98
By:  Frank Johnson
 
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 NCES Common Core of Data (CCD). Technical notes and definitions from the original report have been omitted.
 
 

About $326 billion of revenues were raised by local, state, and federal governments to fund public education for grades prekindergarten through 12 in school year 1997-98. Current expenditures (those excluding construction, equipment, and debt financing) came to $285 billion. Three out of every five current expenditure dollars were spent on teachers, textbooks, and other instructional services and supplies. An average of $6,189 was spent on each student—an increase of 4.5 percent from $5,923 in school year 1996-97 (in unadjusted dollars).

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.

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About $326 billion were collected for public elementary and secondary education for school year 1997-98 in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (table 1). Total revenues ranged from a high of around $38 billion in California, which serves about 1 out of every 8 students in the nation, to a low of about $682 million in North Dakota, which serves about 1 out of every 388 students in the nation. Nationally, revenues increased an average of 6.9 percent over last year's revenues of $305 billion (in unadjusted dollars).*

Table 1.—Revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1997-1998 (In thousands of dollars)
Table 1.- Revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1997-1998 (In thousands of dollars)
Table 1.- Revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1997-1998 (In thousands of dollars)

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

NOTE: Detail may not add to totals due to rounding. National figures 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," 1997-98.

By far, the greatest part of education revenues came from nonfederal sources (state, intermediate, and local governments), which together provided about $304 billion, or 93.2 percent of all revenues. The federal government contribution to education revenues made up the remaining $22 billion. The relative contributions from these levels of government can be expressed as portions of the typical education dollar (figure 1). For school year 1997-98, local and intermediate sources made up 45 cents of every dollar in revenue; state revenues comprised 48 cents; and the remaining 7 cents came from federal sources.

Among states with more than one school district, revenues from local sources ranged from 14.6 percent (New Mexico) to 86.8 percent (New Hampshire) 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 three states: New Hampshire (9.3 percent), Illinois (28.4 percent), and Vermont (29.4 percent); and more than 70 percent in New Mexico (72.2 percent). State revenues in Hawaii made up 89.0 percent of total revenues. Federal revenues ranged from 3.6 percent in New Jersey to 14.1 percent in Mississippi. Federal revenues made up 16.5 percent of total revenues in the District of Columbia.

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Current expenditures for public education in 1997-98 totaled about $285 billion (table 3). This represents a $15 billion (5.6 percent) increase over expenditures in the previous school year ($270 billion in unadjusted dollars). About $177 billion in current expenditures went for instruction. Another $96 billion were expended for a cluster of services that support instruction. Over $12 billion were spent on noninstructional services.

Figure 1.—The public education dollar: Revenues by source: School year 1997-98 Total revenues: $326 billion
Figure 1.- The public education dollar: Revenues by source: School year 1997-98 Total revenues: $326 billion

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 1997-98.

Table 2.—Percentage distribution of revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1997-98
Table 2.- Percentage distribution of revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1997-98
Table 2.- Percentage distribution of revenues for public elementary and secondary schools, by source and state: School year 1997-98

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

NOTE: Detail may not add to totals due to rounding. National figures 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," 1997-98.

When expressed in terms of the typical education dollar, instructional expenditures accounted for 62 cents of the education dollar for current expenditures (figure 2). Instructional expenditures include teachers' 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). Approximately 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 (61.8 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). Three states spent more than two-thirds of their current expenditures on instruction. These states were New York (68.0 percent), Maine (67.3 percent), and Rhode Island (67.1 percent).

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In 1997-98, the 50 states and the District of Columbia spent an average of $6,189 in current expenditures for every pupil in membership (table 5). This represents a 4.5 percent increase in current expenditures per student from the previous school year ($5,923 in unadjusted dollars). Four states—New Jersey ($9,643), Connecticut ($8,904), New York ($8,852), and Alaska ($8,271)—expended more than $8,000 per pupil. The District of Columbia, which comprises a single urban district, spent $8,393 per pupil. Only one state, Utah, had expenditures of less than $4,000 for each pupil in membership ($3,969). The median per pupil expenditure was $5,958, indicating that one-half of all states educated students at a cost of less than $5,958 per student.

On the average, for every student in 1997-98, about $3,827 was spent for instructional services, $2,091 was expended for support services, and $271 was spent for noninstructional purposes.

Table 3.—Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98 (In thousands of dollars)
Table 3.- Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98 (In thousands of dollars)
Table 3.- Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98 (In thousands of dollars)

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

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

NOTE: Detail may not add to totals due to rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 1997-98.

Figure 2.—The public education dollar: Current expenditures by functions: School year 1997-98 Current expenditures: $285 billion
Figure 2.- The public education dollar: Current expenditures by functions: School year 1997-98 Current expenditures: $285 billion

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 1997-98.

Table 4.—Percentage distribution of current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98
Table 4.- Percentage distribution of current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98
Table 4.- Percentage distribution of current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98

*Distribution affected by imputations and redistribution of reported values to correct for missing items.

NOTE: Detail may not add to totals due to rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 1997-98.

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Footnotes

*Comparisons are based on the previous edition of this Statistics in Brief, which covers the 1996-97 school year: Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1996-1997 (Johnson 1999).


Johnson, F. (1999). Revenue and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1996-1997 (NCES 1999-301. U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

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Table 5.—Student membership and current expenditures per pupil in membership for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98
Table 5.- Student membership and current expenditures per pupil in membership for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98
Table 5.- Student membership and current expenditures per pupil in membership for public elementary and secondary schools, by function and state: School year 1997-98

1Value contains imputation for missing expenditure data.

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

NOTE: Detail may not add to totals due to rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey," 1997-98

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Data source: The NCES Common Core of Data (CCD), "National Public Education Financial Survey" (NPEFS), 1996-97 and 1997-98.

For technical information, see the complete report:

Johnson, F. (2000). Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1997-98 (NCES 2000-348).

Author affiliation : F. Johnson, NCES.

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

To obtain the complete report (NCES 2000-348), visit the NCES Web Site (http://nces.ed.gov) or contact Lena McDowell (lena.mcdowell@ed.gov).



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