Largest Year-to-Year Increase in Over 20 Years for Public School Spending Per Pupil

APRIL 25, 2024 - Nationally, public school spending per student rose 8.9% from $14,358 in FY 2021 to $15,633 in FY 2022, according to new data from the 2022 Annual Survey of School System Finances released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This represents the largest percentage increase in public school spending per pupil in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in over 20 years. Statistics are not adjusted for inflation or cost-of-living differences between geographic areas.

The states spending the most per pupil were New York ($29,873), the District of Columbia ($27,425), New Jersey ($25,099), Vermont ($24,608), and Connecticut ($24,453). The states spending the least per pupil were Utah ($9,552), Idaho ($9,670), Arizona ($10,315), Oklahoma ($10,890), and Mississippi ($10,984).

Other highlights:

• Seven out of nine states in the Northeast region ranked among the top 10 in current spending per pupil in FY 2022; the remaining two states in the region, Pennsylvania and Maine, ranked 11th and 14th, respectively. Sixteen out of the 20 states with the lowest per pupil spending were in the South or West regions. The remaining four were Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and South Dakota.
• Among the 100 largest school systems (by enrollment), New York City School District in New York ($35,914) spent the most per pupil in FY 2022, followed by Washington Schools in the District of Columbia ($27,425), San Francisco Unified in California ($23,654), Atlanta School District in Georgia ($22,882), Los Angeles Unified in California ($21,940), and Detroit School District in Michigan ($21,771).
• Public school systems in Mississippi (23.3%), South Dakota (21.7%), Montana (20.9%), Alaska (20.6%), and Arkansas (20.4%) had the highest percentage of revenue from federal sources compared to their total revenue in FY 2022, while those in New York (7.2%), New Jersey (7.4%), Connecticut (8.0%), New Hampshire (8.8%), and Massachusetts (9.4%) had the lowest.
• Total school district debt increased by 2.1% from $532.5 billion in FY 2021 to $543.9 billion in FY 2022.