Revenues and Expenditures Per Pupil for Public School Districts Increased Between 2016-17 and 2017-18

The national median of total revenues per pupil and expenditures per pupil increased across all public school districts between budget years 2017 and 2018.   A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provides information about revenues and expenditures in the nation’s public school districts for school year 2017-18. The report uses provisional data from the School District Finance Survey (F-33), which state education agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia submit each year. The national median of total revenues per pupil across all LEAs was $13,914 in FY 18, which represents an increase of 2.0 percent from FY 17, after adjusting for inflation. The national median of current expenditures per pupil among all LEAs was $11,722 in FY 18, an increase of 1.7 percent from FY 17.   On a national basis, in the absence of any geographic cost adjustment, in FY 18 median current expenditures per pupil were $10,901 in cities, $13,357 in the suburbs, $10,826 in towns, and $11,918 in rural areas. In FY 18, current expenditures per pupil in the 100 largest public school districts by enrollment ranged from a low of $6,646 in Alpine School District, Utah to a high of $26,588 in New York City Public Schools. The report also provides information on a regional basis, although a geographic cost adjustment was not applied. In FY 18, current expenditures per pupil from the two largest school districts within each state by region were highest in: Northeast: New York City Public Schools, New York ($24,109); and Boston City Schools, Massachusetts ($24,177);  South: District of Columbia Public Schools, District of Columbia ($22,759) and Christina School District, Delaware ($21,408) Midwest: Cleveland City School District, Ohio ($18,273) and St Paul Independent School District 625, Minnesota ($15,564); and West: Hawaii Department of Education, Hawaii ($15,242) and Laramie County School District 1, Wyoming ($15,239) Median current expenditures per pupil in independent charter school districts were lower than median current expenditures per pupil in noncharter and mixed school districts in 23 out of the 30 states that met reporting standards for reporting finance data for independent charter school districts