What the Data Means

School finance data gives you an indication of how much money is spent at your

school or in your district, and how this amount compares to the state average.

The state where your school is located will determine the type of school spending data that is available. For California schools, for example, the data shown is the average amount of money spent per student in the school district. In Texas, the amount shown is for the school and it is also broken down into expense categories — instructional, school leadership, support services, instructional-related services and other. In most school and district budgets throughout the country, the lion's share of the funding goes to paying for instruction and instructional-related services, i.e. teacher and staff salaries.

What the Categories Mean

• Instruction includes all activities dealing directly with the interaction between teachers and students, including instruction aided with computers.
• Instructional-related services include money spent for educational resources and media (such as books and software), resource centers and libraries, curriculum development and training for staff and teachers.
• Instructional leadership includes managing, directing, supervising and providing leadership for staff who are involved in teaching.
• School leadership includes staff required for directing and managing a school.
• Support services include guidance, counseling and evaluation, social work and health services.
• The "other" category combines money spent on food services, activities outside the classroom, building maintenance and operations, security and monitoring and, at the district level, school buses.

• Compare what your school or district spends to the state average. If your school or district spends less than the state average, you'll want to dig deeper to find out why. When comparing averages for school-level expenditures note that certain factors may affect comparisons, such as the experience level of teachers and administrators, the types of instructional programs offered and student characteristics. If you have questions or concerns, ask your school principal or school superintendent.
• Where available, consider the breakdown of expenses (instructional, school leadership, support services, instructional-related services and other) and compare these to the state average. If the school is spending less on instruction, for example, than the state average, that's a red flag. You'll want to ask your principal or superintendent why.
• Find out how much your state spends on average to educate students, and compare that with the national average. The United States Census Bureau reported in 2006 (based on state-based data from 2004) that the national average was $8,287 per student per year. New Jersey was the highest with $12,981 while the state that spent the least was Utah at $5,008. If you are concerned about the level of spending on education in your state as compared to others, contact your state legislator and/or join with other parents to lobby for increased funding.

• How does my school's funding level compare to other schools? To the state average?
• How does my state compare to other states on school funding?
• What is the local level of funding?
• Are parents and community members active in raising funds for the school and the school district?
• Does my school or school district have a nonprofit foundation dedicated to fundraising?
• If there are state budget cuts, what expenses will get cut at my school?

What Else to Consider

• While many states have made efforts to equalize funding among school districts, a 2006 EdTrust report notes that there are severe inequities among federal and state funding allocations, and within districts. Low-income and minority students suffer the most as less money is generally spent in schools serving the most disadvantaged students. "Fairer finance systems are not a silver bullet," the report says, "but they are a first step toward the harder work of substantive education improvement."
• To further complicate the issue, a high rate of spending does not necessarily correlate with a higher level of student achievement. The District of Columbia, which ranks high in per-pupil spending, ranks well below average on the fourth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading, a national test measuring student achievement while New York, which ranks high in per-pupil spending, ranks well above average on the fourth-grade NAEP in reading.
• Certainly finance is only one of many factors affecting student achievement, along with the quality of the school leadership and teachers, staff training, class size, aligning state standards to curriculum and accountability, and parent involvement. And certainly schools in more affluent communities, where parents and community members help to raise additional funds, are able to provide enrichment programs such as music, the arts, well-stocked school libraries, that less affluent schools generally can't afford.
• The report, Quality Counts 2006, found that factors such as per-pupil spending and student demographics had less of an impact on student achievement than a state's history of raising expectations and standards.
• What's a good school finance system? According to a Denver education finance consulting firm presentation at the National Conference of State Legislatures' school funding summit, held in February 2007, such a system would allocate state aid based on the needs of school districts and give local school districts a reasonable amount of flexibility to determine how and where to spend their money, and demand accountability for the results.
• Why don't states and the federal government spend more on education? They must deal with competing demands for funds along with such other priorities as health care, social services and transportation.
• School spending can be complicated to understand and it can be difficult to track where the money goes. "Getting Down to Facts," a 2007 extensive research project examining California's systems, called the current way the state distributes money to schools "complex and irrational."
• What can you as a parent do about the complicated school funding system? Ask your local school board how they analyze the budget. When it comes time to approve of the annual budget, urge them to ask lots of questions of the superintendent, and ask questions yourself during the "public comment" part of the school board meeting. Join with other parents to lobby your state legislature to make school funding equitable among schools and simpler for citizens to understand.

Updated March 2008