$22,854 per pupil: Pennsylvania school districts’ total spending in fiscal 2024–25, district by district

Total spending per pupil in 477 Pennsylvania school districts, fiscal 2024–25: median $22,854, range $15,517 to $50,238. Every figure from PDE AFR public records, with what the figure includes and leaves out.

Half of the 477 Pennsylvania school districts that run both elementary and high school grades recorded total spending of more than $22,854 per pupil for fiscal 2024–25, and half recorded less. That middle figure, the median, comes from the Annual Financial Report data published by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). It is the most recent year DistrictFacts publishes for the state.

The lowest figure among those districts is $15,517 per pupil, at Shamokin Area SD (2,157 students enrolled, 2023–24). The highest is $50,238, at West Greene SD (649 students enrolled, 2023–24), about 3.2 times the lowest. The middle half of districts fall between $20,800 and $25,262.

Spending per pupil, fiscal 2024–25: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest of 477 Pennsylvania districts

Shamokin Area SD
$15,517
Mount Carmel Area SD
$15,850
Mars Area SD
$16,660
Crestwood SD
$16,966
Abington Heights SD
$17,253
Austin Area SD
$37,402
Lower Merion SD
$38,078
Forest Area SD
$43,574
New Hope-Solebury SD
$43,869
West Greene SD
$50,238

10 of 477 districts shown: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest. Bars start at zero and the line marks the median of all 477, $22,854. Each bar links to the district’s page.

Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), Annual Financial Report data, fiscal 2024–25

The largest district

Philadelphia City SD is the largest Pennsylvania system reporting this figure, with 117,907 students enrolled (2023–24). Its figure is $25,604 per pupil for fiscal 2024–25, 12% above the $22,854 median of the 477 districts compared here. The DistrictFacts homepage compares the same figure with a wider group: all 482 Pennsylvania systems reporting it for the year, including the kinds of district left out here. That median is $22,880, and Philadelphia City SD is 12% above it.

What “spending per pupil” means in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania the figure is total expenditures per average daily membership, certified by PDE from each district’s Annual Financial Report. Average daily membership is PDE’s certified count of a district’s resident students, the count used in state subsidy calculations; it is not the enrollment headcount shown on a district page. It is a total: the published description lists no category of spending left out, so it is not comparable with an operating-only figure.

Each state defines this figure differently: what spending is counted, and which count of students it is divided by. The Pennsylvania figure should not be set beside another state’s, and DistrictFacts does not rank states on it.

Which districts are counted

DistrictFacts publishes pages for 500 Pennsylvania districts and other local education agencies. 482 of them report this figure for fiscal 2024–25. The median and the range above cover 477: regular school districts whose schools span both elementary and high school grades. The other 5 are left out so that different kinds of district are not mixed in one median:

The remaining 18 have no published figure for the year. A missing or withheld figure is not counted as zero; it is left out of the median.

What this does not tell you

A per-pupil figure does not show whether money was spent well, and it is not a measure of school quality. Districts differ in the students they serve, the services they must provide and their size. In a district with few students, a small change in spending or in the pupil count moves the figure a long way. This is one year of data and it says nothing about the trend. A useful question to ask a district is what is included in its figure and how it has changed over time; each district page linked here shows the detail and the source file.

This report was generated from public records by the DistrictFacts Data Desk. Every figure in it is read from the Annual Financial Report data of the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), as published on the district pages; none was typed by hand. The method is described on the DistrictFacts methodology page, and a correction can be requested from this story.

Sources

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