We're taking at look at our first episode of the TikTok series, EdFinToks, where you can learn about education finance all under 60 seconds. We're breaking down where education funding comes from and how it's spent.
We'll start with the basics of K-12 education spending in the United States. How much does the U.S. spend annually on K-12 public education? The total spending for fiscal year 18 was $721B (numbers rounded to the nearest billion). Where does that money come from?We’re taking a look at the F33 Census data summary tables and came across the following
$329B (45.6%) came from “Local” funding—this is primarily money that local governments collect through property taxes.
$337B (46.7%) came from “State” funding—this comes from money that state governments collect through sales taxes, state income taxes, tolls, and other taxes or fees.
$55B (7.7%) came from “Federal” funding—this comes from the federal government budget that is generated from federal income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate taxes, and estate taxes.
You can probably see that the keyword here is TAXES. Local, state, and federal governments collect money through a variety of taxes in order to fund public services like education, mass transit, roads and highways, parks and recreation, health services, and public safety.
Right off the bat, $90B goes towards pre-committed expenses: capital projects and interest on debt. This includes construction of school buildings, athletic fields, and sometimes even major purchases like buses or projects like a new roof or heating/cooling system.
That leaves $630B for operating expenses. About 80% of spending goes to salaries and benefits, which is pretty typical for any large organization. $382B goes towards Instruction, most of which is teacher salaries and benefits but also includes some supplies, curricular materials, and student technology. $248B goes towards Support Services and Other Expenses, which includes:
Many of these support services are required by state or federal law.
The U.S. has nearly 51 million public school students. The average spending per student, known as “per-pupil spending” is $12,612 but this number can vary from state to state, district to district, and even school-to-school. The state with the lowest average per-pupil spending is Utah ($7.6K) and the state with the highest average per-pupil spending is New York ($24K).
Interested in learning more about funding? Look up the F33 Census data and check out the revenue and spending data for your home state.
The most recent data available is from “Fiscal Year 18” which refers to the school year that started in the Fall of 2017 and ended in the summer of 2018. If you’re interested in looking up specific data for your state, go to this link and download the tables.
Catch up on our previous EdFinToks