The Mississippi Legislative PEER Committee is releasing its report titled A Review of Mississippi School Districts’ Revenue Sources and Expenditures for Fiscal Years 2016 through 2020.

Some of the Committee’s major findings include:

• During fiscal years 2016 through 2020, public school districts received approximately $23.8 billion from state, local, and federal sources. Approximately $12.2 billion (51%) was from the state, approximately $8.3 billion (35%) was from local sources, and approximately $3.4 billion (14%) was from federal sources.
• After adjusting for inflation, funding per student from the state increased $75, local support increased $398, and federal support decreased $97 from FY 2016 through FY 2020 for an inflation adjusted increase of $376.
• A comparison of the level of funding for Mississippi and contiguous states determined that Alabama has the highest level of state funding (56%) and the lowest level of local funding (33%), while Louisiana has the lowest level of state funding (45%) and the highest level of local funding (45%).  Mississippi’s level of state funding was 50% and local funding was 36%.
• From FY 2016 through FY 2020, school districts expended approximately $22 billion, of which approximately $11.9 billion (54%) was spent on instructional-related items such as teacher salaries, employee benefits, and classroom supplies.
• When comparing FY 2016 to FY 2020 and before adjusting for inflation, daily operational expenditures increased by approximately $260 million, with instructional expenditures increasing by approximately $158 million.
• After adjusting for inflation, expenditures in the daily operations categories increased by $311 per student from FY 2016 to FY 2020, with $208 of these increased expenditures comprising the instructional category.
• According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Mississippi expended $8,754 per enrolled student in FY 2017, which was the lowest amount when compared to the contiguous states.

https://www.peer.ms.gov/Reports/reports/rpt655.pdf