Finance

Total Expenditures

Expenditures for public and private education, from preprimary through graduate school, are projected at $1,093 billion for 2008–09. The expenditures of elementary and secondary schools are expected to total $661 billion for 2008–09, while colleges and universities will spend about $432 billion (see Digest of Education Statistics, 2009, table 27). After adjustment for inflation, total expenditures for all educational institutions rose by an estimated 39 percent between 1998–99 and 2008–09. Expenditures for elementary and secondary schools rose by an estimated 32 percent during this period, while total expenditures for colleges and universities rose by 51 percent.

The total expenditures for education are estimated to amount to about 7.6 percent of the gross domestic product in 2008–09.

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Table 31. Total expenditures of educational institutions and percentage of gross domestic product: Selected years, 1980–81 through 2008–09
Year	Expenditures in billions of current dollars	Expenditures in billions of constant 2007–08 dollars1	Percent of gross domestic product
1980–81	$176.4	$431.0	6.3
1985–86	259.3	504.5	6.1
1990–91	395.3	624.9	6.8
1994–95	485.2	682.9	6.8
1995–96	508.5	696.8	6.9
1996–97	538.9	717.9	6.9
1997–98	570.5	746.7	6.8
1998–99	603.8	776.9	6.9
1999–2000	649.3	812.0	6.9
2000–01	705.0	852.4	7.1
2001–02	752.8	852.4	7.3
2002–03	795.7	925.0	7.5
2003–04	830.3	944.6	7.5
2004–05	876.0	967.4	7.4
2005–06	925.7	984.8	7.3
2006–07	984.2	1,020.7	7.3
2007–082	1,053.0	1,053.0	7.5
2008–092	1,093.0	1,078.0	7.6
1Constant 2007–08 dollars based on the Consumer Price Index, prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. 2 Projected. 2 Projected NOTE: Includes expenditures for public and private education, from preprimary through graduate school. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.