After changing little throughout most of the 1990s, public revenue for elementary and secondary education as a percentage of gross domestic product increased each year from 1997–98 to 2001–02.

Two ways in which public fiscal support for education can be assessed include measuring the level of public investment per student and measuring the level of public investment in relation to the total value of goods and services produced in the domestic economy. This indicator discusses both measures, using total public revenues for education from the local, state, and federal levels as the level of public investment. The first measure is the average level of public resources devoted to the education of each public school student. The second measure is total public revenue for education expressed as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP). It can be interpreted as the public’s share of total national economic resources devoted to elementary and secondary education, or as the level of governmental investment in elementary and secondary education in relation to the total production of goods and services in the United States.

Public revenue per student at the elementary and secondary levels generally increased between the 1969–70 and 2001–02 school years in constant dollars (see table 39-1). One exception to this pattern occurred from 1978–79 to 1981–82, when public revenues per student declined by 3 percent. The general increases in revenue per student over recent decades took place in both periods of declining and rising enrollments.

The changes in public revenue per student do not parallel shifts in the index of governmental effort for elementary and secondary education. After fluctuating in the early half of the 1970s, public revenue for elementary and secondary education as a percentage of GDP decreased over the next 9 years (see table 39-2). Since the mid-1980s public revenue for elementary and secondary education as a percentage of GDP has generally increased. After first declining and then increasing, public revenue as a percentage of GDP, was of similar magnitude in 2001–02 as it was in 1969–70 (4.08 and 3.98 respectively). Hence, while public revenues per student increased substantially from 1969–70 to 2001–02 (109 percent), public revenue as a percentage of GDP did not.

For comparisons of expenditures for elementary and secondary education in the United States with those of other countries, see NCES 2004–077, indicator 36-2004.