Expenditures per Pupil for Public K-12 Education Increase for Fourth Consecutive Year

Revenues and expenditures increased in public K-12 education for the fourth consecutive school year in 2016–17 (Fiscal Year 2017). A new set of data tables and figures from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provides information about state-level revenues and expenditures in the nation’s public K-12 education system for school year 2016-17. The tables feature data from the FY 17 provisional National Public Education Financial Survey data file that state education agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and the outlying territories submit to NCES each year. Total revenues increased by 2.3 percent from FY 16 to FY 17, local revenues increased by 2.4 percent, state revenues increased by 2.4 percent, and federal revenues increased by 0.5 percent, after adjusting for inflation. Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education across the nation increased by 2.0 percent between FY 16 and FY 17, following on the heels of an increase of 2.9 percent from FY 15 to FY 16. The increases in current expenditures per pupil reverse four consecutive years of current expenditure per pupil declines from FY 09 to FY 13, after adjusting for inflation. Current expenditures per pupil were $12,258 at the national level in FY 17, which represents an increase of 1.6 percent from FY 16, following an increase of 2.8 percent from FY 15, after adjusting for inflation. At the state level, current expenditures per pupil ranged from $7,206 in Utah to $22,861 in New York. In addition to New York, current expenditures per pupil were among the five highest in the District of Columbia ($22,561), Connecticut ($19,929), New Jersey ($19,585), and Vermont ($19,480). In addition to Utah, current expenditures per pupil were among the five lowest in Idaho ($7,554), Oklahoma ($7,921), Arizona ($8,053), and Mississippi ($8,755). These tables and figures present state-level data on revenues by source and expenditures by function and object for public elementary and secondary education for school year 2016-17. Tables and figures on district-level revenues and expenditures will be released later this yea