Public School Spending Per Pupil Reaches Historic High in 2024

May 7, 2026 - Nationally, public school current spending per pupil rose 6.6% from $16,526 in fiscal year (FY) 2023 to $17,619 in FY 2024, according to new data from the 2024 Annual Survey of School System Finances released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics are not adjusted for inflation or cost-of-living differences between geographic areas.

The states with the highest current spending per pupil were New York ($31,918), the District of Columbia ($31,529), Vermont ($28,818), New Jersey ($27,234) and Connecticut ($26,316). The states spending the least per pupil were Idaho ($11,060), Utah ($11,347), Arizona ($12,003), Oklahoma ($12,162) and Mississippi ($12,324).

Other highlights:

• Eight out of nine states in the Northeast region ranked among the top 10 in current per-pupil spending in FY 2024; the remaining state in the region - Pennsylvania - ranked 12th. The South accounted for half of the 20 states with the lowest per-pupil spending. The other half consisted of five states from the Midwest and five states from the West.
• Among the 100 largest school systems (by enrollment), New York City School District in New York ($35,796) had the highest current expenditures per pupil in FY 2024, followed by the District of Columbia Public Schools ($31,529), Atlanta School District in Georgia ($26,117), Los Angeles Unified in California ($25,631) and San Francisco Unified in California ($25,173).
• Public school systems in Mississippi (22.7%), Alaska (21.0%), New Mexico (19.7%), South Dakota (19.4%) and Louisiana (19.2%) had the highest percentage of revenue from federal sources compared to their total revenue in FY 2024, while those in New Jersey (6.3%), Utah (7.9%), Minnesota (8.1%), Connecticut (8.1%) and Massachusetts (8.2%) had the lowest.