Which Students Receive a Greater Share of School Funding?

Funding progressivity, or how much more is spent on educating students from families with low incomes relative to students from families with higher incomes, has stayed relatively flat for decades. Funding at the local level, which is largely dictated by property taxes, tends to allocate more toward students from families with higher incomes, but state and federal programs attempt to correct for those inequities by filling in funding gaps and allocating more dollars for students from families with low incomes.

Rural schools often face higher costs than urban schools because they have different needs for transportation, technology, and salaries to attract school staff. By looking at funding changes by school geography, we can understand how policymakers balance funding streams between urban, suburban, town, and rural districts.

As a result of school segregation and other discriminatory practices, many students of color do not have educational opportunities equal to those of white students. These data show changes in funding equity, or how school funding is distributed by race and ethnicity, and highlight which students receive the most funding.

Below, you can explore which students experience a greater share of education funding. The chart to the right shows the national average and clicking on a state will add its trend line to the chart. By using the funding stream buttons, you can see how each level of government contributes differently to funding equity. In general, local funding, which comes from property taxes, inequitably allocates funds, whereas states, which have their own funding formulas, typically attempt to correct these inequities. Federal funding, which accounts for less than 10 percent of all funding, is also designed to create equity.