$14,635 per student: Texas school districts’ operating spending in fiscal 2024–25, district by district

Operating spending per student in 979 Texas school districts, fiscal 2024–25: median $14,635, range $9,652 to $54,551. Every figure from TEA PEIMS public records, with what the figure includes and leaves out.

Half of the 979 Texas school districts that run both elementary and high school grades recorded operating spending of more than $14,635 per student for fiscal 2024–25, and half recorded less. That middle figure, the median, comes from the PEIMS actual financial report published by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). It is the most recent year DistrictFacts publishes for the state.

The lowest figure among those districts is $9,652 per student, at Wylie ISD (TX-221912) (5,595 students enrolled, 2024–25). The highest is $54,551, at Valentine ISD (32 students enrolled, 2024–25), about 5.7 times the lowest. The middle half of districts fall between $12,914 and $17,281.

Operating spending per student, fiscal 2024–25: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest of 979 Texas districts

Wylie ISD (TX-221912)
$9,652
Ft Davis ISD
$9,745
Brock ISD
$9,928
Lumberton ISD
$9,938
London ISD
$10,066
Benavides ISD
$38,764
Boys Ranch ISD
$42,958
Rankin ISD
$43,097
Cotton Center ISD
$44,000
Valentine ISD
$54,551

10 of 979 districts shown: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest. Bars start at zero and the line marks the median of all 979, $14,635. Each bar links to the district’s page.

Texas Education Agency (TEA), PEIMS actual financial report, fiscal 2024–25

The largest district

Houston ISD is the largest Texas system reporting this figure, with 176,039 students enrolled (2024–25). Its figure is $14,147 per student for fiscal 2024–25, 3% below the $14,635 median of the 979 districts compared here. The DistrictFacts homepage compares the same figure with a wider group: all 1,201 Texas systems reporting it for the year, including the kinds of district left out here. That median is $14,530, and Houston ISD is 3% below it.

What “operating spending per student” means in Texas

In Texas the figure is a division DistrictFacts makes from two numbers in the same TEA report, because TEA publishes both and leaves the ratio to the reader: a district’s operating expenditures from all funds divided by its enrolled membership, rounded to the dollar. It is operating spending only. Debt service, capital outlay and recapture (local tax a district sends to the state) are reported separately and are not included.

Each state defines this figure differently: what spending is counted, and which count of students it is divided by. The Texas 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 1,208 Texas districts and other local education agencies. 1,201 of them report this figure for fiscal 2024–25. The median and the range above cover 979: regular school districts whose schools span both elementary and high school grades. The other 222 are left out so that different kinds of district are not mixed in one median:

Of the remaining 7, 6 have a figure only for an earlier year and 1 has no published figure for the year. One of them has a figure for fiscal 2024–25 that is withheld, with the reason shown on the district’s page. 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 PEIMS actual financial report of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), 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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