Federal spending covers only 8% of public school budgets
State and local tax dollars cover the bulk of U.S. public school funding.
The federal government spends just under US$55 billion per year on K-12 education, in addition to outlays for early childhood education and post-secondary programs like loans and grants for college tuition.
CC BY-SA
That’s just 8% of the total $720 billion it costs to run the nation’s public schools during the 2017-18 school year, the most recent national data available.
This amounts to around $1,100 per K-12 student.
Federal funding has never surpassed 10% of total public school funding, except from 2010 to 2012 when the federal government sought to reduce the school spending cuts local and state governments made during the Great Recession.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 sent $54 bill...