South Carolina official data shows public school spending continues to climb
Public school spending continues to climb
Data recently released by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board show that K-12 public schools across the state increased their spending by 4.5 percent last year to $8.4 billion for 2008.
The figures, published by the Office of Research and Statistics, show that South Carolina’s 85 public school districts actually exceeded their annual rate of spending growth despite the highly publicized local and state budget cuts.
The largest growth occurred for school and district administration spending, which grew 8.5 percent in the single year to $2.7 billion. In the same period, instructional spending (roughly 44 cents of each public school dollar) increased seven percent to $3.7 billion.
Public school districts in South Carolina receive funding from a wide and often complicated range of local, state, and federal government sources. All told, the districts collected over $8.1 billion dollars during 2008 and spent an average of $12,258.18 for each of the 690,000+ pupils, according to the state’s data.
The Beaufort Tribune has previously reported that, according to the South Carolina state legislature, the Beaufort County School District’s per pupil funding is projected to be $1,379 state, $1,703 federal, and $12,157 local for the 2009-1010 school year. This is a total projected funding level of $15,240 per pupil excluding revenues of local bond issues.
Details of the 2008 public school spending and revenues can be found in the state’s 2008 “Local Government Finance Report,” published online at this link.
The state’s projections of public school spending per pupil in 2009 can be found at this link.
Related posts:
- Beaufort County spends $15,240 to educate each public school child, highest spending level in state
- Letter to editor: South Carolina lowers standards to make student test scores “rise”
- State oversight agency says Beaufort County’s public school system is “below average” and “in jeopardy”, trend is downward
- South Carolina unemployment rate is 12,1%, third highest in nation and highest in state’s history
- Drought officially over in South Carolina
