Statistics in Brief
March 1995
Revenues and Expenditures for Public
Elementary and Secondary Education:
School Year 1992-93
Elementary and Secondary Education:
School Year 1992-93
Every year local, state and federal governments provide the resources
that support public education for students in prekindergarten through
the 12th grade. What were the sources of these revenues in the 1992-93
school year? How were these dollars expended across instruction,
student support, and other services?
The information to answer these and other questions is reported in
the ' "National Public Education
Financial Survey Fiscal Year 1993," one of the components of the Common
Core of Data surveys.
What were the amounts and sources of revenue for public elementary
secondary education?
More than $248 billion were collected for public elementary secondary
education in 1992 93 in the 50 states and the District of Columbia
(table 1). Revenues ranged from a high of almost $28 billion in
California, which serves about one out of every eight students in
the nation, to a low of about $551 million in North Dakota.
By far, the greatest part of education revenues came from local and
state governments, which together provided about $225 billion or 91
percent of all revenues. (Definitions for each item are provided at
the end of the text.) Considerably smaller amounts of revenues came
from intermediate sources which provided about $6 billion of the revenues
for public education. The federal government was the source of some $17
billion of revenues.
The relative contributions from these levels of government can be
expressed as portions of the typical education dollar (figure 1).
Local sources furnished about 45 cents of every dollar in revenue;
state revenues 46 cents; and the remaining 9 cents came from intermediate
and federal sources.
How were public education funds spent?
Current expenditures for public education in 1992 93 totalled over $221
billion (table 2). This represents a $10 billion (5 percent) increase over
expenditures in the previous fiscal year. The greatest expenditures were
in California, which spent $24.2 billion. The smallest expenditures were
the $509 million in North Dakota.
About $135 billion in current expenditures were for instruction. Another
$76 billion were expended for a cluster of services that directly supported
instruction. Approximately $10 billion of the 1992 93 expenditures were
for noninstructional services.
Instructional expenditures accounted for about 61 cents out of the education
dollar (figure 2). Support services made up another 34 cents, and about 5
cents went to noninstructional activities. Six states spent greater than
65 percent of their current expenditures on instruction. These were New
York (67.2 percent), Rhode Island (67.0 percent), Maine (66.3 percent),
Utah (66.1 percent), New Hampshire (65.2 percent) and Vermont (65.1 percent).
Two states spent less than 55 percent of their current expenditures on
instruction. These were the District of Columbia (50.6 percent) and
Alaska (51.2 percent) (table 3).
What were the expenditures per student?
In 1992-93, the 50 states and District of Columbia spent an average of
$5,170 for every pupil in membership at the beginning of the school year
(table 4). Five states expended more than $7,000 per pupil. These were
New Jersey ($8,770), the District of Columbia, which comprises a single
urban district ($8,286), Alaska ($7,901), New York ($7,770) and Connecticut
($7,652). Three states had expenditures of less than $3,500 for each pupil
in membership: Utah ($2,967), Mississippi ($3,159) and Idaho ($3,471). Note
that the states that had the highest and lowest current expenditures for
education fell into the middle range in per pupil expenditures (California
at $4,614 and North Dakota at $4,284).
On the average, for every student about $3,155 was spent for instructional
services, $1,781 for support services and $235 for noninstructional purposes.
Technical Notes
The "National Public Education Financial Survey" (NPEFS) is an annual
state-level collection of revenues and expenditures for public education
of grades prekindergarten through 12. Revenues and expenditures are
audited after the close of the fiscal year and are then submitted to
NCES by each state education agency. Information to explain all missing
and zero values is also collected. The data are processed and edited by
NCES and verified by each state education agency.
NCES has made adjustments for missing data. Values that were missing and
not reported elsewhere in the submission, or in combination with one or more
other items, were imputed. The method used for imputation was to: (a) create
a subset of states reporting the item in question; (b) subtract the value for
that item from each state's total revenues (or expenditures); (c) compute the
ratio of that item to the reduced total (item b) for each state; (d) compute
the average of these ratios; (e) multiply the total revenues (or expenditures)
of the state with the missing item by the average ratio; (f) substitute the
imputed estimate for the missing item and then recompute the subtotals and
totals. Revenues and expenditures for food services or student activities
were imputed for Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
and Virginia.
Other adjustments were made to reported data by distributing portions of
a single value reported for two or more items to the missing items. These
adjustments resulted in distributions that were different than those reported
initially by the state education agencies, but the adjustments did not change
total revenues or total expenditures. The reader should refer to the database
documentation for an in-depth description of all adjustments made by NCES.
This report used information from the "National Public Education Financial
Survey Fiscal Year 1993" and the "1992 Common Core of Data State Nonfiscal
Survey." For further information about this Statistics in Brief or the
complete fiscal data set, contact CCD staff.
Definitions
Current expenditures are those for the day to day operation of schools.
They include all expenditures except those associated with repaying debts,
capital outlays (e.g. land, school construction and repair, and equipment),
and programs outside the regular preschool-grade 12 scope such as adult
education, community colleges, and community services. Expenditures for
items lasting more than one year (such as school buses and computers) are
not included in current expenditures.
Federal revenues include direct grants-in-aid to schools or agencies, funds
distributed through a state or intermediate agency, and revenues in lieu of
taxes to compensate a school district for nontaxable federal institutions
within a district's boundary.
Instruction expenditures are current expenditures for activities directly
associated with the interaction between teachers and students. These include
teacher salaries and benefits, supplies (such as textbooks) and purchased
instructional services.
Intermediate revenues come from sources that are not local or state
education agencies (for example, New York State's Board of Cooperative
Education Services).
Local revenues include revenues from such sources as local property and
nonproperty taxes, investments, and revenues from student activities,
textbook sales, transportation and tuition fees, and food service revenues.
Noninstruction expenditures go for food service and enterprise operations
such as bookstores and interscholastic athletics.
State revenues include both direct funds from state governments and revenues
in lieu of taxation. Revenues in lieu of taxes are paid to compensate a
school district for nontaxable state institutions or facilities within the
district's boundary.
Student membership is the count of students enrolled on or about October 1.
Support services expenditures are current expenditures for activities which support instruction. These services include operation and maintenance of buildings, school administration, student support services (e.g., attendance and guidance counselors), student transportation, instructional staff support (librarians, instructional specialists), school district administration, school administration business services, research, testing, and data processing.
Figure 1.-The public education dollar: Revenues from various sources: School year 1992-93
Source: U.S. Department of Education, ,
Common Core of Data, "National Public Education Finance Survey - Fiscal year 1993"
Figure 2.- The public education dollar: Expenditures by function: School year 1992-93
Source:U.S.Department of Education, , Common Core of Data, "National Public Education Finance Survey - Fiscal year 1993"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Revenues, by source
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State Total Local Intermediate State Federal
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
United States a/ $248,496,276 $111,755,731 $6,076,202 $113,396,992 $17,267,351
Alabama 2,982,753 902,867 0 1,732,506 347,381
Alaska 1,182,527 241,479 0 767,809 173,239
Arizona 3,402,888 1,500,357 190,761 1,411,844 299,926
Arkansas 1,933,846 640,946 3,620 1,104,347 184,934
California 28,039,018 8,343,535 0 17,439,021 2,256,461
Colorado 3,337,266 1,767,835 1,829 1,403,076 164,527
Connecticut a/ 3,971,766 2,289,912 0 1,544,471 137,383
Delaware a/ 631,885 170,472 0 417,965 43,448
District of Columbia 722,230 647,269 0 0 74,961
Florida 11,369,988 4,911,491 0 5,511,186 947,311
Georgia 5,997,559 2,514,257 0 3,019,826 463,476
Hawaii 1,067,810 23,917 0 962,375 81,518
Idaho 896,846 273,061 0 548,181 75,605
Illinois 10,575,035 6,813,500 0 3,013,710 747,825
Indiana 5,625,542 2,388,129 10,243 2,933,242 293,928
Iowa 2,694,532 1,248,286 2,160 1,299,696 144,390
Kansas 2,373,507 926,078 138,698 1,178,800 129,930
Kentucky 3,071,172 703,266 0 2,058,542 309,365
Louisiana a/ 3,490,001 1,202,974 0 1,876,960 410,067
Maine 1,337,730 576,859 0 678,159 82,713
Maryland 4,923,313 2,717,845 0 1,940,701 264,767
Massachusetts 5,881,335 3,624,370 0 1,925,405 331,561
Michigan 10,766,136 6,802,641 3,286 3,295,411 664,798
Minnesota 4,698,237 2,058,844 152,430 2,261,916 225,048
Mississippi 1,773,823 517,635 875 951,723 303,590
Missouri 4,260,954 2,333,385 21,223 1,632,185 274,161
Montana 845,249 233,922 78,853 454,922 77,552
Nebraska 1,597,612 955,344 12,267 529,662 100,340
Nevada 1,176,376 718,816 0 402,727 54,833
New Hampshire 1,062,532 945,398 0 84,340 32,794
New Jersey 10,994,535 5,979,048 0 4,553,681 461,806
New Mexico 1,429,383 196,947 0 1,052,830 179,606
New York 22,574,304 12,282,974 90,042 8,848,907 1,352,381
North Carolina a/ 5,356,917 1,534,856 0 3,388,467 433,593
North Dakota 551,527 240,299 7,681 237,908 65,639
Ohio 10,993,728 6,169,319 11,864 4,178,051 634,495
Oklahoma a/ 2,770,975 856,273 54,252 1,663,413 197,037
Oregon 3,135,734 1,709,134 46,023 1,183,893 196,684
Pennsylvania 12,060,334 6,493,983 3,368 4,826,383 736,599
Rhode Island 968,667 517,934 0 392,841 57,892
South Carolina 3,061,004 1,335,179 0 1,439,690 286,136
South Dakota 603,085 361,405 7,671 164,040 69,969
Tennessee 3,394,425 1,496,726 0 1,546,611 351,089
Texas 17,446,887 3,965,188 5,192,507 6,983,217 1,305,976
Utah 1,657,433 578,368 0 961,278 117,788
Vermont 637,740 404,554 0 198,114 35,072
Virginia a/ 5,867,838 3,616,584 0 1,886,029 365,225
Washington 5,499,862 1,272,273 4 3,920,527 307,058
West Virginia 1,841,575 464,990 187 1,234,018 142,379
Wisconsin 5,346,988 3,061,619 0 2,047,701 237,669
Wyoming 613,864 223,391 46,358 308,687 35,428
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Outlying Areas
American Samoa 35,031 187 77 9,810 24,957
Guam 210,480 190,321 0 0 20,160
Northern Marianas 41,015 154 0 29,285 11,576
Puerto Rico 1,433,524 1,948 0 946,249 485,326
Virgin Islands 143,438 115,527 0 0 27,912
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
a/ Local revenues for these states contain amounts imputed for one or two items making up local revenues. These amounts made up less than 3 percent of local revenues in any one state.
NOTE: Details may not add to total due to rounding. National figures do not include outlying areas.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , Common Core of Data, "National Public Education Financial Survey."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Current expenditures, by function
---------------------------------------------------
State Total Instruction Support services Noninstruction
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
United States a/ $221,352,533 $135,067,681 $76,235,942 $10,048,910
Alabama 2,610,514 1,623,693 773,464 213,357
Alaska 967,765 495,869 441,461 30,435
Arizona 2,753,510 1,608,841 989,933 154,737
Arkansas 1,703,604 1,069,660 519,528 114,416
California 24,219,792 14,515,129 8,693,446 1,011,217
Colorado 2,919,916 1,791,024 1,022,879 106,014
Connecticut a/ 3,737,765 2,368,773 1,220,892 148,100
Delaware a/ 599,893 375,684 202,360 21,849
District of Columbia 670,654 339,266 302,282 29,107
Florida 9,661,012 5,609,755 3,566,770 484,487
Georgia 5,273,143 3,324,731 1,630,162 318,250
Hawaii 946,074 580,597 304,362 61,115
Idaho 804,231 504,461 260,672 39,097
Illinois 9,942,737 5,886,997 3,695,575 360,165
Indiana 4,797,946 2,984,096 1,598,786 215,063
Iowa 2,459,141 1,529,933 820,898 108,310
Kansas 2,224,080 1,304,668 816,085 103,327
Kentucky 2,823,993 1,713,290 968,533 142,170
Louisiana a/ 3,199,842 1,906,733 1,007,563 285,546
Maine 1,217,418 806,903 366,084 44,431
Maryland 4,556,233 2,822,084 1,522,110 212,040
Massachusetts 5,281,067 3,239,997 1,868,806 172,264
Michigan 9,532,994 5,535,516 3,722,486 274,991
Minnesota 4,135,284 2,646,040 1,323,114 166,129
Mississippi 1,600,752 997,074 472,867 130,811
Missouri 3,710,426 2,253,749 1,292,890 163,786
Montana 785,159 487,327 265,132 32,700
Nebraska 1,430,039 885,855 422,808 121,376
Nevada 1,035,623 612,677 388,280 34,667
New Hampshire 972,963 634,198 306,599 32,166
New Jersey 9,915,429 5,847,981 3,800,586 266,862
New Mexico 1,240,310 727,371 451,556 61,384
New York 20,898,267 14,035,286 6,254,766 608,215
North Carolina a/ 4,930,704 3,037,814 1,509,934 382,956
North Dakota 508,648 312,211 155,299 41,138
Ohio 9,572,879 5,471,610 3,747,551 353,718
Oklahoma a/ 2,442,320 1,440,157 787,220 214,943
Oregon 2,849,009 1,701,141 1,053,453 94,416
Pennsylvania 10,944,392 6,956,917 3,577,579 409,896
Rhode Island 934,815 626,154 287,742 20,919
South Carolina 2,690,009 1,594,927 857,238 237,844
South Dakota 553,005 339,207 182,691 31,107
Tennessee 3,139,223 1,907,725 1,071,617 159,881
Texas 15,121,655 8,890,632 5,248,579 982,444
Utah 1,376,319 910,053 380,212 86,054
Vermont 625,064 406,682 199,569 18,813
Virginia a/ 5,228,196 3,121,272 1,837,789 269,135
Washington 4,679,873 2,800,395 1,665,971 213,507
West Virginia 1,626,005 1,007,685 523,330 94,990
Wisconsin 4,954,900 3,143,002 1,662,810 149,088
Wyoming 547,938 334,840 193,622 19,476
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Outlying Areas
American Samoa 23,636 10,792 8,916 3,929
Guam 161,477 69,877 76,036 10,007
Northern Marianas 38,784 28,814 6,777 3,193
Puerto Rico 1,295,452 895,535 253,659 146,258
Virgin Islands 120,510 68,564 45,905 6,040
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
a/ Noninstruction expenditures for these states contain amounts imputed for one or two items contained in noninstruction expenditures. These amounts made up less than 42 percent of noninstruction expenditures in any one of these states.
NOTE: Details may not add to total due to rounding. National figures do not include outlying areas.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , Common Core of Data, "National Public Education Financial Survey."
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Within-state percentage distribution
-------------------------------------------------------------
State Instruction Support services Noninstruction
________________________________________________________________________________________________
United States a/ 61.0 34.4 4.5
Alabama 62.2 29.6 8.2
Alaska 51.2 45.6 3.1
Arizona 58.4 36.0 5.6
Arkansas 62.8 30.5 6.7
California 59.9 35.9 4.2
Colorado 61.3 35.0 3.6
Connecticut a/ 63.4 32.7 4.0
Delaware a/ 62.6 33.7 3.6
District of Columbia 50.6 45.1 4.3
Florida 58.1 36.9 5.0
Georgia 63.1 30.9 6.0
Hawaii 61.4 32.2 6.5
Idaho 62.7 32.4 4.9
Illinois 59.2 37.2 3.6
Indiana 62.2 33.3 4.5
Iowa 62.2 33.4 4.4
Kansas 58.7 36.7 4.6
Kentucky 60.7 34.3 5.0
Louisiana a/ 59.6 31.5 8.9
Maine 66.3 30.1 3.6
Maryland 61.9 33.4 4.7
Massachusetts 61.4 35.4 3.3
Michigan 58.1 39.0 2.9
Minnesota 64.0 32.0 4.0
Mississippi 62.3 29.5 8.2
Missouri 60.7 34.8 4.4
Montana 62.1 33.8 4.2
Nebraska 61.9 29.6 8.5
Nevada 59.2 37.5 3.3
New Hampshire 65.2 31.5 3.3
New Jersey 59.0 38.3 2.7
New Mexico 58.6 36.4 4.9
New York 67.2 29.9 2.9
North Carolina a/ 61.6 30.6 7.8
North Dakota 61.4 30.5 8.1
Ohio 57.2 39.1 3.7
Oklahoma a/ 59.0 32.2 8.8
Oregon 59.7 37.0 3.3
Pennsylvania 63.6 32.7 3.7
Rhode Island 67.0 30.8 2.2
South Carolina 59.3 31.9 8.8
South Dakota 61.3 33.0 5.6
Tennessee 60.8 34.1 5.1
Texas 58.8 34.7 6.5
Utah 66.1 27.6 6.3
Vermont 65.1 31.9 3.0
Virginia a/ 59.7 35.2 5.1
Washington 59.8 35.6 4.6
West Virginia 62.0 32.2 5.8
Wisconsin 63.4 33.6 3.0
Wyoming 61.1 35.3 3.6
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Outlying Areas
American Samoa 45.7 37.7 16.6
Guam 43.3 47.1 6.2
Northern Marianas 74.3 17.5 8.2
Puerto Rico 69.1 19.6 11.3
Virgin Islands 56.9 38.1 5.0
________________________________________________________________________________________________
a/ Noninstruction expenditures for these states contain amounts imputed for detail (not reported here) affecting noninstruction and total current expenditures.
NOTE: National figures do not include outlying areas.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , Common Core of Data, "National Public Education Financial Survey."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Current expenditures per pupil in membership
Fall 1992 ---------------------------------------------------------
student Support
State membership Total Instruction services Noninstru
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
United States a/ 42,815,541 5,170 3,155 1,781 235
Alabama 730,857 3,572 2,222 1,058 292
Alaska 122,487 7,901 4,048 3,604 248
Arizona 673,477 4,088 2,389 1,470 230
Arkansas 441,490 3,859 2,423 1,177 259
California 5,249,275 4,614 2,765 1,656 193
Colorado 612,635 4,766 2,923 1,670 173
Connecticut a/ 488,476 7,652 4,849 2,499 303
Delaware a/ 104,321 5,750 3,601 1,940 209
District of Columbia 80,937 8,286 4,192 3,735 360
Florida 1,981,407 4,876 2,831 1,800 245
Georgia 1,207,186 4,368 2,754 1,350 264
Hawaii 177,448 5,332 3,272 1,715 344
Idaho 231,668 3,471 2,178 1,125 169
Illinois 1,873,567 5,307 3,142 1,972 192
Indiana 960,630 4,995 3,106 1,664 224
Iowa 494,839 4,970 3,092 1,659 219
Kansas 451,536 4,926 2,889 1,807 229
Kentucky 655,041 4,311 2,616 1,479 217
Louisiana a/ 797,985 4,010 2,389 1,263 358
Maine 216,453 5,624 3,728 1,691 205
Maryland 751,850 6,060 3,754 2,024 282
Massachusetts 859,948 6,141 3,768 2,173 200
Michigan 1,603,610 5,945 3,452 2,321 171
Minnesota 793,724 5,210 3,334 1,667 209
Mississippi 506,668 3,159 1,968 933 258
Missouri 859,357 4,318 2,623 1,504 191
Montana 160,011 4,907 3,046 1,657 204
Nebraska 282,414 5,064 3,137 1,497 430
Nevada 222,974 4,645 2,748 1,741 155
New Hampshire 181,247 5,368 3,499 1,692 177
New Jersey 1,130,560 8,770 5,173 3,362 236
New Mexico 315,668 3,929 2,304 1,430 194
New York 2,689,686 7,770 5,218 2,325 226
North Carolina a/ 1,114,083 4,426 2,727 1,355 344
North Dakota 118,734 4,284 2,630 1,308 346
Ohio 1,795,199 5,332 3,048 2,088 197
Oklahoma a/ 597,096 4,090 2,412 1,318 360
Oregon 510,122 5,585 3,335 2,065 185
Pennsylvania 1,717,613 6,372 4,050 2,083 239
Rhode Island 143,798 6,501 4,354 2,001 145
South Carolina 639,942 4,204 2,492 1,340 372
South Dakota 134,573 4,109 2,521 1,358 231
Tennessee 854,329 3,674 2,233 1,254 187
Texas 3,541,769 4,270 2,510 1,482 277
Utah 463,870 2,967 1,962 820 186
Vermont 98,558 6,342 4,126 2,025 191
Virginia a/ 1,031,925 5,066 3,025 1,781 261
Washington 896,475 5,220 3,124 1,858 238
West Virginia 318,296 5,108 3,166 1,644 298
Wisconsin 829,415 5,974 3,789 2,005 180
Wyoming 100,313 5,462 3,338 1,930 194
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Outlying Areas
American Samoa 13,994 1,689 771 637 281
Guam 30,077 5,369 2,323 2,528 333
Northern Marianas 8,086 4,796 3,563 838 395
Puerto Rico 637,034 2,034 1,406 398 230
Virgin Islands 22,887 5,265 2,996 2,006 264
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
a/ Noninstruction expenditures for these states contain amounts imputed for detail (not report here) affecting noninstruction and total current expenditures.
NOTE: Details may not add to total due to rounding. National figures do not include outlying are
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , Common Core of Data "National Public Education Financial Survey."
For more information about the substantitive content of this report,
contact CCD staff.
[Indicators and Briefs]