Spotlight On: per Pupil Expenditures (PPE) (Updated for 2021)
More than $13 billion dollars was spent on K-12 traditional public education in North Carolina in the 2018-19 school year, including funding from local, state, and federal sources. Beginning in 2019-20, the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires all states to report school-level per-pupil expenditures, by funding source, for the preceding fiscal year.
The availability of school-level data allows a new level of transparency for the public, educators, and policymakers. This spotlight features analysis that is now possible with these new data. Additional data/tools can be found at www.BESTNC.org/PPE201819 as well as on the North Carolina School Report Cards.
Average per pupil expenditures for high-poverty schools are about $3,000 more per pupil than low-poverty schools.