PEER releases report on Mississippi school district revenue sources and expenditures

The Mississippi Legislative PEER Committee is releasing its report titled A Review of Mississippi School Districts’ Revenue Sources and Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2016 through 2020.

Mississippi’s public school districts operate as separate financial entities. The funds they receive come from state appropriations, local revenue, federal revenue and other sources like grants and donations. In this report PEER focused on reoccurring revenue from state, local and federal sources.

District expenditures were divided into seven major budget categories: instructional, administration, student support, plant operations, food services, transportation and other.

Some of the Committee’s major findings include:

• During fiscal years 2016 through 2020, public school districts received approximately $23.8 billion from state, local, and federal sources. Approximately $12.2 billion (51%) was from the state, approximately $8.3 billion (35%) was from local sources, and approximately $3.4 billion (14%) was from federal sources.
• After adjusting for inflation, funding per student from the state increased $75, local support increased $398, and federal support decreased $97 from FY 2016 through FY 2020 for an inflation adjusted increase of $376.
• A comparison of the level of funding for Mississippi and contiguous states determined that Alabama has the highest level of state funding (56%) and the lowest level of local funding (33%), while Louisiana has the lowest level of state funding (45%) and the highest level of local funding (45%).  Mississippi’s level of state funding was 50% and local funding was 36%.
• From FY 2016 through FY 2020, school districts expended approximately $22 billion, of which approximately $11.9 billion (54%) was spent on instructional-related items such as teacher salaries, employee benefits, and classroom supplies.
• When comparing FY 2016 to FY 2020 and before adjusting for inflation, daily operational expenditures increased by approximately $260 million, with instructional expenditures increasing by approximately $158 million.
• After adjusting for inflation, expenditures in the daily operations categories increased by $311 per student from FY 2016 to FY 2020, with $208 of these increased expenditures comprising the instructional category.
• According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Mississippi expended $8,754 per enrolled student in FY 2017, which was the lowest amount when compared to the contiguous states.

Read the full report below:

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