The actual costs of running a school

What does it cost to run a school?

The state Department of Education looks at the total money spent on schooling in this state and breaks those total dollars into the component parts on an average statewide basis. This enables the public to see exactly how those sums are divided.

A recent fiscal analysis found that 93.7 percent of total school expenditures go directly to schools — 65 percent of the total dollars cover direct classroom costs and 28.7 percent of the total covers school site costs.

Though numbers can be numbing, sometimes it is interesting and important to see where they fall.

Here’s the breakdown of school costs:

In terms of classroom costs, 52 percent goes for teachers, and another 13 percent pays for expenses such as teaching aides (5 percent); books, supplies and equipment (5 percent); counselors and nurses (3 percent).

Of the school site costs, 10 percent per year is spent on operating and maintaining school property, and paying for utilities, maintenance workers, and materials. Four percent pays for the cooks, servers, and food. Three percent pays for transporting a million students a day statewide. Another 4.2 percent goes to instructional support, such as librarians, library aides, substitute teachers, math and science specialists, and media technicians. School site leadership accounts for 7.5 percent of the total, including principals, vice principals, secretaries, and clerical support.

About 5.9 percent of the total education dollars go to district administration, including expenditures for insurance, legal and auditing services, central office administrators, secretaries, clerical staff, supplies, and equipment. County Office oversight expenses amount to .5 percent of the total education dollars, and the state department expenses amounts to .4 percent of the total.

In sum, the State Department analysis shows that the dollars add up this way:

93.7 percent goes directly to schools
5.9 percent goes to district administration;
.5 percent goes to county oversight; and
.4 percent goes to state oversight.

These are the facts.

There are 6.2 million students in more than one thousand districts statewide. Educating them to the best of our ability is our highest priority. It is an investment that reaps enormous dividends in both the short-term and the long-term.