Dollars to the Classroom Act
FAQ

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2181 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, DC 20515-6100

Federal Education Spending: What Is Spent and Where the Money Goes

REVENUES FOR EDUCATION

Q. How much money was collected for education in School Year (SY) 1995-1996?
A. In SY 1995-96, almost $288 billion were collected for public elementary and secondary education in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This means an increase of an average of 5.3 percent over the previous year's revenues.

Q. Where did this money come from?
A. Most revenues came from state, intermediate, and local governments, which provided 93.4 percent of all revenues.

Q. What proportions were contributed by local, state, and federal dollars?
A. Local and intermediate sources contributed nearly 46 cents of every dollar in revenue; state revenues contributed 47 cents; and 7 cents came from federal sources.

Q. What was spent for public education in SY 1995-96?
A. Over $255 billion were spent for public education in SY 1995-96. This is a 2.7 percent increase over the previous year's expenditures.

Q. How much money is spent per student?
A. An average of $5,689 was spent for every pupil in membership in the 50 states and the District of Colombia in SY 1995-1996. About $3,512 was spent for instructional services for every student, $1,922 for support services, and $255 for non-instructional purposes.

Q. What was this money spent on?
A. • Sixty two cents out of every dollar was spent on instructional expenditures. This includes things such as teachers' salaries and benefits, supplies, and purchased services.
     • Thirty four cents went for support services which includes operation and maintenance of buildings, school administration, transportation, and other student and school support activities.
     • Non-instructional activities such as school meals and enterprise activities such as bookstores took about four cents of every dollar.

Q. Which are the highest and lowest spending states?
A. The states are as follows:

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