Census Bureau: Public Education Finances 2005

The US Census Bureau released it Public Education Finances reports. The media are abuzz with the per-pupil spending figures. New York was the highest, spending more than $14,000 per pupil (on average), which has sparked an interesting conversation among readers of the NY Times. You can read this discussion here (free registration may be required). The US average was $8,701.

Oklahoma ($6,613 per pupil) was in the bottom five, outspending Mississippi, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah ($5,247). Bear in mind that this includes all PK-12 funding, which includes all spending on our state's Career Tech system, the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, etc.

Other things we noted while reviewing the tables:

• $1,078 of the per-pupil amount come from federal sources. This compares to the national average of $923. Oklahoma ranked 14th among the 50 states and District of Columbia in the amount of expenditures that were federal. (Note: that's not the percent, that's the amount!) Of the bottom five states, only Mississippi had a greater federal percentage. Without the federal contribution, our overall rank would have been even lower.
• Half (49.9%) of the revenue for Oklahoma schools comes from state sources and 36% from local sources.
• Oklahoma ranked 49th in spending for instruction, 50th in teacher salary expenditures, 24th in general (district) administration, and 48th in expenditures for school (building) administration.
• When the states were ranked according to the relation between PK-12 school finance and personal income, Oklahoma ranked 28th in revenue, 42nd in teacher salaries, 16th in district administration, and 40th in school administration.