School funding in the United States is wildly complex, perennially inequitable, and frequently misunderstood. A slew of reports and data published in recent weeks offer fresh evidence.
Districts annually get funding鈥攔oughly $900 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the 鈥攆rom three main sources: local taxpayers, state appropriations, and the federal government. The policies, formulas, and political conditions informing dollar amounts vary significantly from source to source and from place to place.
Nationwide figures tell one important story about K-12 school funding鈥攈ow much money schools are spending in the aggregate. But digging deeper reveals far more stories that vary from state to state and even school to school within the same district.
For instance: the average funding per pupil from state and local sources in Vermont and New York state is more than $25,000. The comparable figure in states such as Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, and Utah is less than $12,000鈥攍ess than half the amount in the highest-spending states.
In states including Connecticut, Florida, and Michigan, districts with large shares of students in poverty get far less state and local money per pupil on average than districts with small shares of low-income students. The opposite is true in Maryland, South Dakota, and Utah鈥攄istricts with high concentrations of student poverty get thousands of dollars more from state and local sources than low-poverty districts.
鈥淛ust by accident of where you happen to be born or live, there would be as much as a threefold difference in how much your child is getting in terms of school funding per pupil,鈥� said Bob Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center, a nonprofit that leads litigation on school funding issues and recently released its latest annual 鈥淢aking the Grade鈥� report on school funding. 鈥淭hat is an enduring and pretty unconscionable reality of this nation鈥檚 school system.鈥�
America鈥檚 population of school children is diverse, and the systems governing the schools they attend are labyrinthine and scattershot. Emerging data can be useful for highlighting deep disparities that affect students, and for understanding the broad landscape with an eye toward addressing them.
In that spirit, here are some key figures from recent publications.
State spending is going up, but huge disparities persist
The overwhelming majority of K-12 schools鈥� annual revenue鈥攔oughly 90 percent nationwide鈥攃omes from state and local sources. Federal money makes up the rest, mostly subsidizing services for poor students and students with disabilities. States overall spent more on schools this year than last, but inequities persisted.
Sources:
- , an annual report on school funding from state and local sources published Dec. 12 by the Education Law Center. This year鈥檚 report covers data from the 2021-22 school year.
- , published on Dec. 10 by the National Association of State Budget Officers. The report draws on state budget reports up through fiscal year 2024.
Child poverty is relatively low nationwide鈥攂ut much higher in some states
A wide body of research shows that schools need to devote more resources to students from low-income families relative to their higher-income peers so they have the same opportunity to succeed academically. Many state funding formulas direct more per-pupil funding to account for the greater needs of those students鈥攖hough advocates and lawmakers in states including , , , and are currently debating whether those efforts are sufficient.
Source:
The U.S. Census Bureau鈥檚 annual survey report known as the . This year鈥檚 report, with data from calendar year 2023, was published on Dec. 17. The Census Bureau based on the number of people in a household.
Slightly fewer bond elections succeeded this year
Bond election results offer a window into local voters鈥� enthusiasm for long-term investments in their local schools. Districts secured approval for a larger amount of money to spend on bonds than ever before鈥攂ut the percentage of successful bond elections is a little smaller than in previous years, according to SchoolBondFinder, a nationwide database that tracks K-12 school bond election outcomes.
Source:
, a continuously updated nationwide database of K-12 school bond election outcomes published by the Amos Group, a firm that sells school finance data to companies looking to contract with districts.
K-12 student populations are poised to shrink鈥攂ut not everywhere
An accelerating, though not universal, nationwide trend of declining K-12 enrollment appears poised to accelerate in the coming years, thanks to trends including dropping birth rates, fluctuating immigration policy, unpredictable interstate migration patterns, and the rapid expansion of policies that allow parents to spend public funds on private education for their children. When enrollment drops, K-12 districts in most states lose per-pupil funding, straining their ability to cover fixed costs like staff compensation, utility bills, and pension obligations.
Source:
The annual from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a coalition of state policymakers and researchers serving colleges and universities. The report, now in its 11th year, draws on K-12 school enrollment data and a wide range of other demographic statistics to project the number of high school graduates for each year in the next two decades.
