'Nation's Report Card': Who Cares? If you fix some of these numbers maybe the other numbers will mean something!

Per Student Public Education Spending Decreases in 2011 for First Time in Nearly Four Decades, Census Bureau Reports

Note: This is a revised release due to two changes. The embedded map incorrectly had Wyoming as spending more than $16,000 and the District of Columbia spending less than $16,000. The map was corrected to reflect the true spending for Wyoming ($15,849) and the District of Columbia ($18,475).

There was also a calculation error for the 100 largest school districts, sorted by per student spending. The calculation was for the 50 largest school districts, and incorrectly stated that it was the 100 largest school districts. The original order would be true for the 50 largest school systems: New York City School District ($19,770), Baltimore City Public Schools in Maryland ($15,483), Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland ($15,421), Milwaukee Public Schools in Wisconsin ($14,244) and Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland ($13,775).

Fiscal year 2011 marked the first decrease in per student public education spending since the U.S. Census Bureau began collecting data on an annual basis in 1977, according to new statistics released today (dollars not adjusted for inflation). The 50 states and the District of Columbia spent $10,560 per student in 2011, down 0.4 percent from 2010. The top spenders were New York ($19,076), the District of Columbia ($18,475), Alaska ($16,674), New Jersey ($15,968) and Vermont ($15,925).

Total expenditures by public elementary and secondary school systems totaled $595.1 billion in 2011, down 1.1 percent from 2010. This is the second time total expenditures have shown a year-to-year decrease, the first time being 2010.

Today's findings come from Public Education Finances: 2011. These statistics provide figures on revenues, expenditures, debt and assets (cash and security holdings) of the nation's elementary and secondary public school systems for the 2011 fiscal year. The release includes detailed statistics on spending — such as instruction, student transportation, salaries and employee benefits — at the national, state and school district levels.

Of the $595.1 billion in total expenditures for public school systems, $522.1 billion is comprised of current spending (i.e. operational expenditures, not including long-term debt). Expenditure for instruction amounted to $316.3 billion (60.6 percent) of the total current spending, while costs for support services amounted to $178.7 billion (34.2 percent). Instructional salaries were the largest expenditure category for public elementary and secondary education, accounting for $208.8 billion in 2011.

On the revenue side, public schools received $599.1 billion in total revenue for 2011, an increase of 1.1 percent from 2010. The largest source of revenue is from state governments at $265.9 billion (44.4 percent of total revenue), followed by local governments at $259.5 billion (43.3 percent) and the federal government providing $73.7 billion (12.3 percent).

States that had the highest percentage of their total public school revenue coming from federal funding included Mississippi (22.3 percent of the statewide education revenue), South Dakota (20.3 percent), Louisiana (18.7 percent), Alaska (17.8 percent), Florida (17.8 percent) and New Mexico (17.7 percent).

Conversely, states that had the lowest percentage of their total school revenue coming from federal funding were New Jersey (5.1 percent), New Hampshire (6.5 percent), Vermont (7.1 percent), Massachusetts (7.8 percent), Minnesota (7.8 percent) and Connecticut (8.3 percent).

Other highlights:

• Property taxes accounted for 65.6 percent of revenue from local sources for public school systems.
• Of the 100 largest school systems by enrollment in the U.S., New York City School District in New York ($19,770) had the highest current spending per student in 2011, followed by Boston Public Schools in Massachusetts ($19,181), Baltimore City Public Schools in Maryland ($15,483), Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland ($15,421), and Howard County Schools in Maryland ($15,139).
• States spending the least per student were Mississippi ($7,928), Arizona ($7,666), Oklahoma ($7,587), Idaho ($6,824) and Utah ($6,212).
• Eight out of nine states in the Northeast region of the U.S. were ranked among the top 15 in current spending per student in 2011. The remaining state in the northeast, Maine, was ranked 17th. Out of the 16 states with the lowest per student spending, 15 were in the South and West regions. The remaining state, South Dakota, was in the Midwest.

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The data used in the tabulations came from a census of all 15,191 public school systems. As such, they are not subject to sampling error. Although quality assurance methods were applied to all phases of data collection and processing, the data are subject to nonsampling error, including errors of response and miscoding. For more information, visit the Census Bureau's website at <http://www.census.gov/govs/school/>.

PER-PUPIL EDUCATIONAL EXPENDITURES ADJUSTED FOR REGIONAL COST DIFFERENCES

New York	19,076	18,618	457.79	2.5
District of Columbia	18,475	18,667	-191.77	-1.0
Alaska	16,674	15,783	891.46	5.6
New Jersey	15,968	16,841	-872.73	-5.2
Vermont	15,925	15,274	651.72	4.3
Wyoming	15,849	15,169	679.97	4.5
Connecticut	15,600	14,906	693.79	4.7
Massachusetts	13,941	13,590	350.97	2.6
Maryland	13,871	13,738	133.09	1.0
Rhode Island	13,815	13,699	116.79	0.9
Pennsylvania	13,467	12,995	471.73	3.6
New Hampshire	13,224	12,383	840.25	6.8
Delaware	12,685	12,383	302.28	2.4
Hawaii	12,004	11,754	250.45	2.1
West Virginia	11,846	11,527	319.20	2.8
Wisconsin	11,774	11,364	409.41	3.6
Maine	11,438	12,259	-820.45	-6.7
North Dakota	11,420	10,991	429.07	3.9
Ohio	11,223	11,030	192.49	1.7
Nebraska	10,825	10,734	91.21	0.8
Michigan	10,823	10,644	179.90	1.7
Illinois	10,774	11,634	-860.33	-7.4
Louisiana	10,723	10,638	84.75	0.8
Minnesota	10,712	10,685	27.04	0.3
Montana	10,639	10,497	141.74	1.4
Virginia	10,364	10,597	-232.40	-2.2
Iowa	9,807	9,763	43.68	0.4
Oregon	9,682	9,624	58.38	0.6
Kansas	9,498	9,715	-217.09	-2.2
Washington	9,483	9,452	30.87	0.3
Missouri	9,410	9,634	-224.14	-2.3
Indiana	9,370	9,611	-241.61	-2.5
Arkansas	9,353	9,143	210.17	2.3
Kentucky	9,309	8,948	360.96	4.0
Georgia	9,253	9,394	-141.10	-1.5
California	9,139	9,375	-235.93	-2.5
New Mexico	9,070	9,384	-313.41	-3.3
South Carolina	8,986	9,143	-156.95	-1.7
Florida	8,887	8,741	145.21	1.7
Alabama	8,813	8,881	-68.04	-0.8
South Dakota	8,805	8,858	-53.70	-0.6
Colorado	8,724	8,853	-129.03	-1.5
Texas	8,671	8,746	-74.51	-0.9
Nevada	8,527	8,483	43.79	0.5
North Carolina	8,312	8,409	-96.36	-1.1
Tennessee	8,242	8,065	177.47	2.2
Mississippi	7,928	8,119	-191.15	-2.4
Arizona	7,666	7,848	-182.24	-2.3
Oklahoma	7,587	7,896	-308.84	-3.9
Idaho	6,824	7,106	-281.98	-4.0
Utah	6,212	6,064	148.56	2.4

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/5199-per-pupil-educational-expenditures-adjusted-for-regional-cost-differences?loc=1&loct=2#ranking/2/any/true/133/any/11678

List of U.S. states by poverty rate

Rank	State	Poverty Rate (by Household Income)	People in Poverty by Household Income (in thousands)	2009 Poverty Rates (includes unrelated children)	Supplemental Poverty Measure (Geographically Adjusted)
-	United States	12.6%	45,950
01	New Hampshire	5.6%	73	7.9%	10.4%
02	New Jersey	6.8%	592	9.5%	12.2%
03	Vermont	7.6%	47	9.6%	8.3%
04	Minnesota	8.1%	412	11.1%	10.7%
05	Hawaii	8.6%	110	12.6%	18.0%
06	Delaware	9.2%	78	12.4%	13.9%
07	Utah	9.2%	231	9.8%	9.5%
08	Virginia	9.2%	684	10.8%	11.7%
09	Connecticut	9.7%	326	8.6%	11.1%
10	Nebraska	9.5%	167	10.0%	9.1%
11	Maryland	9.7%	542	9.7%	14.0%
12	Idaho	9.9%	143	13.9%	11.6%
13	Alaska	10.0%	66	12.1%	11.0%
14	Massachusetts	10.1%	641	10.9%	13.6%
15	Washington	10.2%	636	11.9%	11.2%
16	Wisconsin	10.2%	553	11.1%	10.7%
17	Nevada	10.6%	260	13.1%	17.2%
18	Wyoming	10.6%	54	9.3%	9.0%
19	Florida	11.1%	2,250	14.6%	19.5%
20	North Dakota	11.2%	70	11.0%	8.4%
21	Pennsylvania	11.2%	1,372	11.2%	10.5%
22	Iowa	11.3%	327	10.9%	7.9%
23	Colorado	11.4%	530	12.4%	14.8%
24	Illinois	11.5%	1,441	13.3%	13.8%
25	Missouri	11.6%	659	15.6%	12.8%
26	South Dakota	11.8%	90	14.3%	11.6%
27	Michigan	12.0%	1,196	14.2%	12.4%
28	Oregon	12.0%	436	13.7%	13.3%
29	Rhode Island	12.1%	127	13.2%	12.2%
30	Ohio	12.3%	1,392	13.5%	11.5%
31	Kansas	12.5%	337	13.9%	11.1%
32	Indiana	12.6%	774	16.4%	14.8%
33	Maine	12.6%	166	11.6%	9.6%
34	North Carolina	13.1%	1,115	17.0%	14.3%
35	California	13.2%	4,716	15.5%	22.4%
36	Montana	13.8%	128	13.5%	10.5%
37	Georgia	14.4%	1,298	18.5%	18.8%
38	New York	14.5%	2,760	15.9%	17.6%
39	Kentucky	14.8%	599	17.1%	13.2%
40	Tennessee	15.0%	872	16.7%	14.3%
41	South Carolina	15.0%	626	13.8%	13.8%
42	Arizona	15.2%	917	21.3%	21.6%
43	West Virginia	15.4%	276	16.0%	11.3%
44	Oklahoma	15.6%	543	13.0%	10.8%
45	Arkansas	15.9%	509	19.1%	15.9%
46	Texas	16.2%	3,681	17.4%	16.5%
47	Alabama	16.7%	750	16.8%	15.9%
48	New Mexico	17.9%	347	19.6%	15.8%
49	Louisiana	18.3%	748	14.3%	12.8%
50	Mississippi	20.1%	571	23.2%	17%
51	District of Columbia	20.7%	15	18.0%	23.1%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate