The Cost of Public Education in Texas
For Release: March 12, 2009
Contact: Catherine Clark, 800.580.8272, ext. 6515
Complete report
(Austin) – How education dollars are spent and why education spending has increased are some of the issues examined in a recently released progress report on Texas public school finance. The report, A Cost Analysis for Texas Public Schools, describes the current condition of the state’s public school finance system with respect to adequacy, equity, and capacity; explains how districts are allocating resources; and discusses changes in public school expenditures over the past five years (based on the 2006-07 school year). Among the report’s major highlights:
State funding continues to lag behind the national average. Revenue has not kept pace with inflationary pressures on a per-student basis, much less provided additional resources for improvements to school outcomes. Systemic inequity persists in spite of formula modifications, and differences in student outcomes appear to be related to this systemic inequity. Further, the system has little capacity left to enable schools to create programs to meet local demands, rising costs, and changing educational expectations.
As in past years, personnel continued to drive educational costs in 2006-07 when school districts spent 80 percent of all operating funds on salaries and benefits. The bulk of personnel-related expenditures (62 percent of all funds) went to pay for classroom teachers.
In terms of the purpose of educational expenditures, the largest share of dollars goes to instruction (61 percent). District operations—including facilities maintenance and operations, transportation, food service, data processing, and security—account for the next largest share at 21 percent. Instructional support accounts for 15 percent of the all-funds budget, and central administration accounts for the smallest share of the all-funds budget at 3 percent.
In other findings, the report indicates that educational expenditures have not outpaced inflation, on a per-student basis, since 2001-02. However, spending has increased by $1,116 per student (in dollars that have not been adjusted for inflation). Data for the report were obtained from the Texas Education Agency Actual Financial database for 2006-07.
A Cost Analysis for Texas Public Schools and a companion piece, Tracking the Education Dollar in Texas Public Schools, are available on line. Both studies were completed by Moak, Casey and Associates, and sponsored by the Texas Association of School Administrators, Texas Association of School Boards, Texas School Alliance, Texas Association of School Business Officials, and the Equity Center.
Link to Tracking the Education Dollar: Tracking the Education Dollar