Every public school district in the United States reports what it spends and how many students it enrolls. Divide one by the other and you get current spending per pupil: the amount of public money attached to one child for one school year. Enter a ZIP code above to see the figure for the district that serves it.
By Andrew Garber, founder of TheHomeschoolingCompany. Reviewed .
What the National Numbers Look Like
Across the 16,986 operating school districts in the most recent federal reporting year (fiscal year 2022), public schools spent an average of $15,159 per student. The median district spent $14,543. State medians range from $9,016 per student in Utah to $33,484 in Alaska, so a district figure only means something next to the state it sits in.
What the Figure Includes
Current spending covers instruction, student support services, administration, operations and maintenance of buildings in use, transportation, and food service. It excludes capital construction and debt service, so the full cost of a school seat is higher than the per-pupil figure. None of that money follows a child who learns at home.
How to Read Your Result
Check which district the result names. ZIP code boundaries do not follow school district lines, and many ZIP codes are served by more than one district, so confirm the district that covers your street.
Compare the figure with the state median rather than the national one. Spending levels, teacher salaries, and cost of living differ sharply between states.
Read proficiency rates within the state as well. Each state writes its own test and sets its own proficiency cut score, so rates are not comparable across state lines.
Read the student count beside the figure. It is the denominator, and a district of two dozen children honestly produces a figure in the tens of thousands.
Sources
Spending and enrollment come from the NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) for fiscal year 2022. Test scores and graduation rates come from EDFacts for school year 2018-19, the last year before the pandemic interrupted state testing, so the money and the results are not from the same year. ZIP codes map to districts through the NCES EDGE school district geographic relationship file. Where a ZIP code is split, districts are ordered by how many of their students the overlap implies rather than by ground covered, so a dense city district is not buried under the larger rural districts around it.
Questions About School District Spending
How much does my school district spend per student?
Enter your ZIP code and the page returns the figure your own district reported: its current spending divided by the students it enrolled. Nationally the average is $15,159 per student and the median district spends $14,543, across 16,986 operating districts in fiscal year 2022.
Where does the per-student number come from?
Every public school district files current spending and fall membership with the federal government each year through the School District Finance Survey, known as F-33. The figure shown is that district's reported current spending divided by its reported enrollment. It is not an estimate, a projection, or a model: if a district did not report, the page shows nothing rather than filling the gap.
Does that money follow my child if I homeschool?
No. In almost every state the per-pupil amount is what the district spends on a seat in its own schools, funded from local property tax, state formula aid and federal programs. Withdrawing a child removes the child from the count; it does not send the money home. A handful of states run education savings accounts that pay a portion directly to families, which is a separate program with its own rules.
Why is my district so far from the district one town over?
Per-pupil spending tracks local property wealth, teacher salaries, district size and the share of students who need more support, and those change block by block. State medians run from $9,016 in Utah to $33,484 in Alaska, so compare your district with its own state before comparing it with the national figure. A very small district also produces an extreme figure honestly: one building and one bus route divided among two dozen children runs to tens of thousands each.
Why does my ZIP code show more than one district?
ZIP codes are mail routes, not school attendance areas, so they cross district lines constantly. Where a ZIP is served by several districts the page lists them and lets you pick the one that serves your street. Some places also run a separate elementary district and high school district, and each figure covers only the grades that district teaches, which the page labels.
What does the spending buy, and does it show up in results?
Current spending covers instruction, student support, administration, operating the buildings in use, transport and food service. It excludes construction and debt service, so the full cost of a seat is higher than the figure shown. The page puts the district's 2018-19 reading, math and graduation results beside the money so you can see what the spending is producing, measured against other districts in the same state rather than across state lines.
How does homeschooling compare on cost?
TheHomeschoolingCompany is $1,788 for one student for a school year, which covers personalized lessons, projects, assessments, mentoring, attendance and the records your state asks for. Each child after the first lowers the rate for all of them, down to $900 each from five children. Most districts spend several times that per student. The comparison is annual against annual; it is not a claim that a family can reproduce a school building for the difference.
Spending Per Student by State
Each state page lists every district we can place in a ZIP code, with its spending, its test results and its graduation rate beside it.