Ten Years of Per Pupil Spending, Adjusted for Inflation

With all this talk about state budgets and how the abyss in the General Fund will be filled, it helps to know the facts when it comes to funding for public education in Alabama.

So here are ten years’ worth of per pupil expenditures (PPE) by district.

Adjusted for inflation.

You know you wanna know. So dig in.

Using numbers provided by the Alabama State Department of Education in their yearly report cards, you can view PPE from FY05 through FY14 in different ways: by system, by year, by revenue source (state, federal, local) and also what enrollment has been over that ten-year period.

[Shout out to Cometdocs for being so reliable in converting PDFs to Excel spreadsheets.]

Yes, these numbers are adjusted for inflation, using 2009 as the base year. Check the Methodology section here for more information.

While these numbers give you an idea of how much money is spent per student and from which source (local, state, or federal) the dollars come, what they don’t tell is how these dollars are being spent. Specifically.

And what better time to ask how your school officials are spending this money than at your local district budget hearings? Happening now. Find out when.

Back to the numbers. Each viz has a title. Each viz has a pull-down menu to allow you to choose whatever is choose-able.

First, enrollment (or Average Daily Membership as it’s referred to).

Next, a look at all sources of revenue used for expenditures.

Now a look at local expenditures per pupil. These are the difference-makers. This money allows students to have additional opportunities beyond what state funding provides.

State funding. The bulk of state funding is provided through the Foundation Program, though there are small differences due to additional opportunities provided by the ALSDE.

Finally, a look at federal funding. It’s difficult to explain the differences here, as federal funding is usually targeted at populations that are underserved. That funding usually has a time limit and many reporting requirements.

That’s it for now. If you have questions, please post them here. If we don’t know the answers, we will search for them.