The nation’s public school districts spent an average of $8,701 per student on elementary and secondary education in fiscal year 2005, up 5 percent from $8,287 the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

     Findings from Public Education Finances: 2005, show that New York spent $14,119 per student — the highest amount among states and state equivalents. Just behind was neighboring New Jersey at $13,800, the District of Columbia at $12,979, Vermont ($11,835) and Connecticut ($11,572). Seven of the top 10 with the highest per pupil expenditures were in the Northeast.

     Utah spent the least per student ($5,257), followed by Arizona ($6,261), Idaho ($6,283), Mississippi ($6,575) and Oklahoma ($6,613). All 10 of the states with the lowest spending per student were in the West or South.

     The report and associated data files contain information for all local public school systems in the country. For example, in New York City, the largest school district in the country, per pupil spending was $13,755.

     In all, public school systems spent $497 billion, up from $472.3 billion the previous year. Of these expenditures, the largest portions went to instruction ($258.3 billion) and support services such as pupil transportation and school administration ($146.3 billion).

     These school systems received $488.5 billion in 2005, up from $462.7 billion the previous year. Of the total, 47 percent came from state governments, 43.9 percent from local sources and 9.1 percent from the federal government.

     Other highlights:

• The $214.6 billion schools received from local sources included $186.5 billion from taxes and local government appropriations.
• School construction spending totaled $41.8 billion nationwide, with California ($8.7 billion) and Texas ($4.7 billion) combined accounting for almost one-third of this amount.
• Alaska led all states or state equivalents in the proportion of its public school system revenue coming from the federal government (18.9 percent). Hawaii led all states in proportion from state sources at 87.4 percent; Vermont’s share was 87.2 percent.

     The data come from the 2005 Annual Survey of Local Government Finances. The tabulations contain data on revenues, expenditures, debt and assets for all individual public elementary and secondary school systems.