Hi everyone!  Before I get into the topic, I’d like to thank my subscribers for staying tuned. For today’s installment I’m going to discuss just regular ol’ general education which doesn’t get much attention very often. Despite slowing enrollment declines and stable projections as reported by the DOE, let’s not forget that general education enrollment is still down by a significant amount.  Although there are fewer general ed students, increased expenditures have led to larger per capita spending.

General Education Enrollment and Spending.

General education enrollment was more than 849,000 students in 2013 but ten years later, the mayor’s message highlights that enrollment stands at 649,000, equal to a 24% drop.  These students roughly comprise an average of 81% of the share of all students educated within DOE school buildings.  They also typically make up more than two-thirds of all students that NYC is accountable for.

General education classroom instructional expenditures between 2013 and 2022 comprised an average of roughly 32% of the total education budget and reached $9.4 billion in 2022.  According to the DOE’s audited annual financial statements, classroom expenditures for general education have increased by 56% however, this type of spending has been a falling share of the total education budget. The growth of the total budget, 85% between 2013 and 2022, has outpaced the growth in general ed classroom expenditures.  

To consider the amount of money spent per child, per capita calculations provide a way to understand spending in terms of a specific population. Over the years I’ve done several analysis of per capita comparisons of general education students and charter students (https://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/charterschoolsfeb2010.pdf ).  This time I looked only at general education classroom instruction for general ed students not inclusive of any other non-instructional or related services they might receive.  

A look at the most stripped-down classroom expenditures for these children shows per capita general ed expenditures increasing from a modest $7,000 per child in 2013 to over $14,000 in 2022.  I took a peek at the DOE’s school based expenditure reports to see if I was on the right track and I was delighted to find that indeed I was.  Although their calculations have not been updated since 2018, they differ from mine due to differences in enrollment numbers and possibly a few other small expenditures that I do not capture in my estimate. Otherwise, my estimates are in the ballpark of theirs which range from roughly $7,300 in 2013 to $9,600 in 2018.  

Increased spending is always great news to hear, but part of the reason why per capita spending has increased is also related to a larger budget that is spread across fewer numbers of general education students. These paired down per capita amounts contrast with recent reports that NYC will spend an overall total of $38,000 per student next year.  The huge variance is explained by the inclusion of school services such as transportation, food, safety, school support, and central costs.  Even still, one can argue that of all that’s spent only 37% of the full costs per child land directly in the classroom.

What’s in the General Education Instructional Expenditures Bucket?

The largest share of expenditures within the general ed classroom instructional area of the budget is for school-based staff, particularly people who are in the classrooms or otherwise in front of our children daily.  This includes more than 58,000 pedagogues that are made up of all types of teachers, principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, school secretaries, and others. Despite losing 200,000 students, the change in the number of full-time pedagogues from 2013 to 2023 was down by fewer than 3,000 which is only equal to a 5% decrease. Perhaps the contradiction between lower numbers of school-based staff and increased general ed classroom expenditures can be explained by increases in base salaries.  For example, starting salaries for teachers have grown by 33% between 2013 and 2021 and will grow by another 18% to over $72,000 under the new contract.

Concluding Thoughts.

Although future NYC public school enrollment projections indicate smaller losses, general education students will continue to drive overall enrollment. In doing so, these students also drive a large amount of funding into the public schools although less than half of the per capita spending directly hits the classroom.  We need to ensure that our students receive the resources they deserve to succeed academically, especially in light of the recent Supreme Court decision that might close future opportunities for education.