Public Education Finances: 2015

Public Education Finances: 2015

Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division Reports

by the Educational Finance Branch Issued June 2017

G15-ASPEF

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Kevin Deardorff, Chief, Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division, and Kimberly P. Moore, Chief, Economy-Wide Statistics Division, directed the preparation of this report.

Aneta Erdie, Assistant Division Chief for Educational Surveys, Criminal Justice, and Federal Programs, and William R. Samples, Assistant Division Chief for the Economic Census, provided general supervision for the preparation of this report.

This report was prepared in the Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division by the Educational Finance Branch, led by David Gromos. Stephen Wheeler supervised the data collection and editing activities, assisted by Laura D'Antonio, Lee Goldberg, Erika Chen, Paul Ruth, Dell Gray, and Freda M. Spence. Osei L. Ampadu provided technical advice and support for the survey. Erika Chen coordinated publication preparation activities and prepared data tabulations.

The computer programs used to collect, analyze, and tabulate the data were developed under the direction of Robert Nunziata, Assistant Division Chief for Census Processing Systems, Economic Applications Division. The programs were developed by Yung K. Yi under the supervision of James S. Jolley, Chief, Census and Current Systems Branch.

Publication management, graphics design and composition, and editorial review for electronic media was performed by Faye E. Brock and Corey T. Beasley of the U.S. Census Bureau's Public Information Office, Graphic and Editorial Services Branch.

The Census Bureau offers special thanks for the cooperation of the numerous state and local government officials in providing information for this report.

For information regarding data in this report, contact the Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division, Educational Finance Branch, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC, 20233. Telephone: 800-622-6193; e-mail: .

Public Education Finances: 2015 Issued June 2017

G15-ASPEF

U.S. Department of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary Vacant,

Deputy Secretary Economics and Statistics Administration

Brad Burke, Acting Under Secretary

for Economic Affairs U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

John H. Thompson, Director

SUGGESTED CITATION U.S. Census Bureau,

Public Education Finances: 2015, G15-ASPEF,

U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2017.

Economics and Statistics Administration Brad Burke, Acting Under Secretary for Economic Affairs

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU John H. Thompson, Director Vacant, Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer Ron S. Jarmin, Associate Director for Economic Programs Nick Orsini, Assistant Director for Economic Programs Kevin E. Deardorff, Chief, Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division

CONTENTS

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Figures 1. Public Elementary-Secondary School System Revenue by Source and State:

Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2. Public Elementary-Secondary School System Expenditure by Type and State:

Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3. Public Elementary-Secondary School System Current Spending by Major Function

and State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4. Public Elementary-Secondary School System Per Pupil Current Spending by State:

Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5. Public Elementary-Secondary School System Current Spending Per $1,000 of

Personal Income by State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6. Current Spending Per Pupil for Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems:

Fiscal Years 1992?2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Tables Public Elementary-Secondary Education Finances by State 1. Summary of Public Elementary-Secondary School System Finances by State:

Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2. Revenue From Federal Sources for Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems by

State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3. Revenue From State Sources for Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems by

State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4. Revenue From Local Sources for Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems by

State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 5. Percentage Distribution of Public Elementary-Secondary School System Revenue

by Source and State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 6. Current Spending of Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems by

State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 7. Support Services Expenditure for Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems by

Function and State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 8. Per Pupil Amounts for Current Spending of Public Elementary-Secondary School

Systems by State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 9. Capital Outlay and Other Expenditure of Public Elementary-Secondary School

Systems by State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 10. Indebtedness and Debt Transactions of Public Elementary-Secondary School

Systems by State: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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Tables--Con. Relational Statistics and Rankings 11. States Ranked According to Per Pupil Elementary-Secondary Public School

System Finance Amounts: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 12. States Ranked According to Relation of Public Elementary-Secondary School

System Finance Amounts to $1,000 Personal Income: Fiscal Year 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Public Elementary-Secondary Education Finances by Size Group 13. Public Elementary-Secondary Education School System Finances by

Enrollment-Size Groups: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 14. Per Pupil Amounts of Public Elementary-Secondary School System Finances by

Enrollment-Size Groups: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Individual Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems 15. Revenue of the 100 Largest Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems in

the United States by Enrollment: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 16. Expenditure of the 100 Largest Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems in

the United States by Enrollment: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 17. Percentage Distribution of Revenue of the 100 Largest Public Elementary-

Secondary School Systems in the United States by Enrollment: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . 35 18. Per Pupil Amounts for Current Spending of the 100 Largest Public Elementary-

Secondary School Systems in the United States by Enrollment: Fiscal Year 2015. . . . . . 37

Population, Enrollment, and Personal Income 19. Population, Enrollment, and Personal Income by State: Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015. . . 39

Per Pupil Current Spending Amounts and Percentage Changes by State 20. Per Pupil Current Spending (PPCS) Amounts and 1-Year Percentage Changes for PPCS

of Public Elementary-Secondary School Systems by State: Fiscal Years 2010?2015. . . . 40

Appendixes A. Definitions of Selected Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1 B. Notes Relating to Education Finance Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1 C. Two-Letter State Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-1 D. Survey Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D-1

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INTRODUCTION

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Census of Governments and the Annual Surveys of State and Local Government Finances as authorized by law under Title 13, U.S. Code, Sections 161 and 182. The Census of Governments has been conducted every 5 years since 1957, while the annual survey has been conducted annually since 1977 in years when the Census of Governments is not conducted. The 2015 Annual Survey of School System Finances, similar to previous annual surveys and censuses of governments, covers the entire range of government finance activities--revenue, expenditure, debt, and assets (cash and security holdings).

This report contains financial statistics relating to public elementary-secondary (prekindergarten through grade 12) education. It includes national and state financial aggregates and displays data for the 100 largest school systems by enrollment in the United States.

ORGANIZATION OF THIS REPORT

This introductory text describes the scope, general concepts, survey methodology, and limitations of the data. It also identifies other Census Bureau products that contain public education data.

The tabular section contains 20 tables. Summaries, as well as state-level detail, are presented in Tables 1 through 10. Table 1 contains data for all major financial categories for public school systems. Revenue summaries and supporting detail are shown in Tables 2 through 5, expenditure in Tables 6 through 9, and indebtedness in Table 10.

State rankings based on revenue and expenditure per pupil appear in Table 11. State rankings based on the relation of revenue and expenditure to state personal income (as reported in the Bureau of Economic Analysis' 2014 Survey of Current Business) are shown in Table 12. National summaries and enrollment-size group data for elementarysecondary education systems appear in Tables 13 and 14.

Finance data for the 100 largest school systems by enrollment in the United States are displayed in Tables 15 through 18. Data are presented in thousands of dollars in Tables 15 and 16 for revenue and expenditure items. Table 17 displays percentage distributions of federal, state, and local revenue for these same school systems. Per pupil expenditure data appear in Table 18. Supplementary data on state-level populations, enrollments, and personal income are shown in Table 19. Per pupil current spending amounts and percentage change for fiscal years 2010? 2015 are shown in Table 20.

SCOPE

This 2015 report presents data on the financial activity of public elementary and secondary school systems. Related data on public school system employment are available in the Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll--School Systems. Information for higher and other education systems can be found in separate annual and Census of Governments reports that focus on the finances of states, counties, cities and towns, and government finances in general. The universe consists of 15,084 public school systems (as counted for the 2014? 2015 survey cycle in a September 2016 listing of school systems in the Governments Integrated Directory).

GENERAL CONCEPTS

Refer to Appendix A, Definitions of Selected Terms, for descriptions of the items appearing in this report and on the data collection instrument.

Public School Systems

The term "public school systems," as used for this report, includes two types of government entities with responsibility for providing education services: (1) school districts that are administratively and fiscally independent of any other government and are counted as separate governments; and (2) public school systems that lack sufficient autonomy to be counted as separate governments and are classified as a dependent agency of some other government--a county, municipal, township, or state government.

Most public school systems included in this report operate to provide regular, special, and/or vocational programs for children in prekindergarten through grade 12. Some systems, known as "nonoperating" districts, only exist to collect tax revenue, which they then transfer to other school systems that actually provide the education services. This report also includes "educational service agencies." These agencies typically provide regional special education services, vocational education programs, or financial services for member districts. They are classified as joint educational service agencies of the participating districts and are not counted as separate governments.

Charter Schools

In recent years, many states have passed legislation authorizing the formation of "charter" schools. While each state's charter school provisions are unique, there are some common characteristics. In general, a "charter"

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constitutes a contract between a governmental body (the governmental body would be considered the "chartering" or "sponsoring" entity) and an "operator" entity that is responsible for delivering the education services.

In Census Bureau government finance statistics, only charter schools whose charters are held by operators that are governmental bodies are considered to be in scope. For example, if a city or county obtains a charter to operate a school from a sponsoring local school district, the finances of the resulting charter school are included in Census Bureau education finance statistics (and thus are included in this report). The finances for these charter schools are often included within the finances of the sponsoring school district.

Charter schools whose charters are held by operators that are not governmental are considered to be out of scope for the purposes of Census Bureau government finance statistics. In these cases, school district payments to charter schools are included (within the expenditures of the paying school district), but the finances of the charter schools themselves are excluded from the statistics (and thus are excluded from this report).

Current Dollars

The statistics in this report are presented in current dollars. They have not been adjusted for price and wage changes occurring through the years.

Fiscal Years

With the exception of school systems in Alabama, the District of Columbia, Nebraska, Texas, and Washington, the 2015 fiscal year for school systems in all states began on July 1, 2014, and ended on June 30, 2015. The fiscal year for school systems in Alabama and the District of Columbia ran from October 1, 2014, through September 30, 2015. The fiscal year for school systems in Nebraska, Texas, and Washington ran from September 1, 2014, through August 31, 2015. Survey data are not adjusted to conform school systems to a uniform fiscal year.

Elementary-Secondary Education

This report covers financial activity for the operation and support of public school systems providing elementary and/or secondary programs. These activities include the instruction of prekindergarten through grade 12 children, as well as support activities, such as guidance counseling, administration, transportation, plant operation and maintenance, and food services.

Public school systems also offer non-elementary-secondary programs. Adult education and community services are two types of programs operated in many public school systems that are not related to the education of prekindergarten

through grade 12 children. Expenditures for these types of programs are excluded from the per pupil amounts for current spending in Tables 8, 11, 14, 18, and 20. Expenditures made by public school systems for these nonelementary-secondary programs continue to be included in the expenditure data presented in the other tables.

Educational Revenue From Federal, State, and Local Sources

In this report, the tables containing revenue data refer to revenue from federal, state, and local government sources. "Revenue from federal sources" includes monies passed through state governments, as well as federal outlays directly received. "Revenue from state sources" consists only of amounts originating from state governments. "Revenue from local sources" is comprised of revenue raised locally--including taxes, charges, and miscellaneous revenues. These terms and corresponding methodology are different from the Census of Governments taxonomy for "intergovernmental revenue."

For the Census of Governments and the corresponding annual surveys, intergovernmental revenue comprises monies from other governments, including grants, shared taxes, and contingent loans and advances for support of particular functions. It also comprises monies for general financial support, such as any significant and identifiable amounts received as reimbursement for performance of governmental services for other governments and any other form of revenue representing the sharing by other governments in the financing of activities administered by the receiving government. All intergovernmental revenue is reported in the general government sector, even if it is used to support activities in other sectors (such as utilities). Intergovernmental revenue excludes amounts received from the sale of property, commodities, and utility services to other governments (which are reported in different revenue categories). It also excludes amounts received from other governments as the employer share or for support of public-employee retirement or other insurance trust funds of the recipient government, which are treated as insurance trust revenue.

Intergovernmental revenue is classified by function and by the level of government where it originated (i.e., federal, state, or local). The transfer of federal aid that is "passedthrough" the state government to local governments is reported as state intergovernmental revenue at the local level, rather than direct federal intergovernmental revenue.

Revenue from city and county governments is included in both the individual and state totals tables that reference revenue from local sources. Revenue from other school systems, however, is only included in the individual unit tables. These amounts are excluded in the state totals data to avoid double counting.

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