Statistics in Brief
March 1995
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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.