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Dive Brief:

• Total yearly spending for public elementary schools and secondary schools rose nearly 2% in the 2021-22 school year, increasing in inflation-adjusted dollars from $754 billion to $767.8 billion between fiscal years 2021 and 2022, according to data released Tuesday by the National Center for Education Statistics. 

• Meanwhile, state revenues dropped by 2.6% and local revenues also took a hit of 2% from FY21. Federal funding, however, jumped by 32% between fiscal years 2021 and 2022 due to COVID-19 pandemic aid. 

• Per-pupil spending reached $15,591 in 2022, an increase of 1.8% from the year prior, the NCES data shows. 

Dive Insight:

The NCES findings confirm districts' reports during the pandemic that spending rose while state and local revenues fell. 

"This new data provides details on the funding situation that the nation’s public schools faced as they were still working to address many challenges in providing instruction and support to students during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NCES Commissioner of Education Peggy Carr in a Tuesday statement.

In 2020-21, states scaled back pre-K-12 education funding to levels not seen since the 2008 Great Recession, according to a 2023 report from the Education Law Center, a nonprofit that promotes equitable school funding. 

That same school year, spending per pupil increased 3.5% over the year before. 

One year later, states saw increases in spending, NCES confirmed in its Tuesday report. States showing the largest increases between fiscal years 2021 and 2022 include North Carolina (up 7.5%), Louisiana (up 6.4%), and California (up 6.3%). 

While instruction costs along with salaries, wages and employee benefits were among the largest expenditures during FY 22, the steepest year-over-year increases came in food services operations, at 21.3%, and student transportation, at 14.5%.

These increases came at a time when schools mobilized to provide universal school meals for children, wraparound services and instruction support in the face of COVID-19 school building closures.