K-12 Instruction vs. Administration Spending

Comprehensive breakdown of how US public school dollars are split between instruction, administration, and support services — with staffing trends, ratio analysis, and an assessment of the “administrative bloat” claim.

Links: US Spending Per Student, Economics, Vault Index

1. NCES Expenditure Categories: What Counts as What

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) breaks current expenditures (day-to-day operating costs, excluding capital outlay and debt service) into these functional categories:

Instruction (~60% of current expenditures)

Salaries and benefits for teachers, textbooks, supplies, and purchased instructional services. This is classroom-level spending.

Support Services (~35-36% of current expenditures)

An umbrella category with seven subfunctions:

Other Current Expenditures (~4-5%)

Food services, enterprise operations, community services.

Key Definitional Point

When NCES reports aggregate “administration expenditures,” it typically combines general administration + school administration + other support services (which includes business and central support). This is broader than what most people picture when they hear “administration.” The narrow categories — general administration (superintendent/board) and school administration (principals) — are much smaller.

Sources:

• NCES CCD Glossary (2018)
• NCES CCD Glossary (2011)
• NCES COE: Public School Expenditures

2. Expenditure Breakdown by Function: The Numbers

FY 2022 Percentage Breakdown (NCES CCD, most recent full data)

In FY 2022, salaries and wages totaled $416.7 billion and employee benefits totaled $178.3 billion, together accounting for 77.5% ($595.0 billion) of current expenditures.

Instruction and instructional staff support together comprised 64.7% ($497.1 billion) of total current expenditures.

Per-Pupil Amounts by Function (Constant Dollars)

2010-11 to 2020-21 (NCES, constant 2022-23 dollars):

Instruction consistently accounted for 60-61% of current expenditures throughout the decade. Support services accounted for 35-36%.

Reason Foundation Crossroads Report (2002-2020, Constant Dollars)

The Reason Foundation’s “Public Education at a Crossroads” report provides the most granular historical per-pupil breakdown available:

Critical Insight from the Reason Data

Spending increases between 2002 and 2020 were not disproportionately absorbed by administration:

• School administration (principals): $629 to $758/pupil (+20.5%)
• General administration (superintendent/board): $224 to $265/pupil (+18.3%)
• Instruction: $6,818 to $8,176/pupil (+19.9%)

These growth rates are roughly comparable. The outlier is pupil support services ($566 to $864, +52.7%), driven by mandated services including psychological, guidance, health care, paraprofessional services for students with disabilities (speech pathology, occupational therapy).

The single biggest driver of cost increases was employee benefits: up 81.1% per pupil from 2002 to 2023, versus only 7.7% for salaries. Benefits (pensions, health insurance) consumed $3.27 for every $1 added to salaries.

Sources:

• NCES Fast Facts #66
• NCES Press Release, May 2024
• Reason Foundation: Crossroads Report — Revenue & Expenditure Trends
• Reason Foundation: 2025 K-12 Spending Spotlight
• NCES Digest Table 236.60 (per-pupil by function, 1990-2021)
• NCES Digest Table 236.10 (total expenditures by function, 1919-2021)
• NCES Digest Table 236.75 (per-pupil by function and state, 2020-21)

3. Staffing Trends: Teachers vs. Non-Teaching Staff

Reason Foundation 2025 Spotlight (2002-2023)

Non-teaching staff (counselors, social workers, speech pathologists, instructional aides, etc.) now make up over half of all public school employees.

Post-COVID Staffing Surge (2020-2023)

Despite enrollment falling by 1.18 million students between 2020 and 2023, public schools added 81,000+ non-teaching staff. State examples:

• California: lost 318,532 students; added 3,400 non-teaching staff
• New York: lost 159,701 students; added 6,996 non-teaching staff

AEI / Heritage Foundation Long-Run Data (1950-2017)

By 2010, there were 3.099 million teachers and 3.096 million non-teaching staff — essentially 1:1 parity. By 2015, non-teaching staff outnumbered teachers for the first time. By 2023, the ratio was 52.5% non-teaching to 47.5% teaching.

Education Next Data (2000-2017)

Bureau of Labor Statistics (1999-2019): K-12 “education administrators” grew 45.5% (to ~271,000), while teachers grew only 5.4%.

Friedman Foundation / Heritage (1970-2010)

Teachers as a percentage of all school staff:

• 1950: ~70% (estimate)
• 1970: ~60%
• 2000: ~52%
• 2010: ~50%
• 2023: ~47.5%

The decline is consistent: teachers have gone from roughly two-thirds of school employees to less than half over 70 years.

Sources:

• Reason Foundation: 2025 K-12 Spending Spotlight
• AEI: Administrative Bloat in US Public Schools
• AEI: The Staffing Surge / “Educratification”
• Education Next: Growth in Administrative Staff Far Outpaces Teacher Hiring
• Heritage Foundation: How Escalating Education Spending Is Killing Crucial Reform
• NCES Digest Table 213.10 (Staff by assignment, 1949-2022)

4. Student-to-Teacher and Student-to-Administrator Ratios

Student-to-Teacher Ratio (NCES)

The pupil-to-teacher ratio decreased 30% from ~23:1 in 1970 to below 16:1 by 2017. It has been essentially flat for the past 20 years, hovering between 15.4 and 16.0.

Post-COVID: 43 out of 51 states/jurisdictions saw student-teacher ratios decrease between 2018-19 and 2022-23 (fewer students per teacher).

Student-to-Administrator/Staff Ratios

This represents a 31.4% decline in the student-to-district-administrator ratio — meaning each administrator now serves far fewer students.

In 2023, there were approximately 993,000 school administrators in the US, including 512,000 principals and other administrators at elementary and secondary schools. This is a 4% increase from 2018 and a 23.5% increase from 2013.

The AASA Counterargument

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) offers a different framing:

• The ratio of central-office staff to teachers was 32.4:1 in 1992-93 and 33:1 in 2002-03 — essentially unchanged
• Public schools have a staff-to-administrator ratio of roughly 13:1, compared to 3.3:1 in public administration generally, suggesting schools are less top-heavy than government overall
• AASA argues that when all central-office administrative and professional staff are included, there has been “no significant increase” in administrators relative to teachers

Sources:

• NCES Digest Table 208.20 (pupil/teacher ratios, 1955-2026)
• NCES Digest Table 208.40 (pupil/teacher ratios by state, 2000-2022)
• USAFacts: Student-to-Teacher Ratio
• K-12 Dive: Student-Teacher Ratios Post-COVID
• American Experiment: District Admin Growth 10x Greater
• AASA: Are There Too Many Administrators?
• DPE AFL-CIO: School Administrators Overview

5. What Actually Drives Cost Increases: Claims vs. Data

The “Administrative Bloat” Claim

The popular narrative: schools have hired armies of administrators while neglecting classrooms, and this is the primary driver of rising per-pupil costs.

What the staffing data shows: There has been genuine, dramatic growth in non-teaching staff — up 702% since 1950 vs. 96% for enrollment. District administrative staff specifically grew 74.9% from 2000-2017 vs. 7.7% for teachers. Non-teaching staff now outnumber teachers.

What the spending data shows: Administration spending (narrowly defined) has grown at roughly the same rate as instruction spending — about 18-20% in real per-pupil terms from 2002 to 2020. Administration remains a relatively small share of total spending:

• General administration (superintendent/board): ~2% of current expenditures (~$265/pupil in 2020)
• School administration (principals): ~5.6% of current expenditures (~$758/pupil in 2020)
• Combined: ~7-8% of current expenditures

The FEE/Tabarrok Counterpoint

Alex Tabarrok (George Mason, via FEE) argues the bloat narrative is overstated:

• Principals and administrators number only 0.4 per 100 students — a figure that barely changed from 1950 to 2015
• “A bloated little toe cannot explain a 20-pound weight gain”
• The real explanation: we hired more teachers (the student-teacher ratio halved from ~27:1 to ~15:1) and pay them more in real terms
• The administrator increase was largely complete by 1980, but expenditures kept growing

The Real Cost Drivers (in order of magnitude)

1. Employee Benefits — the largest single driver

• Benefits spending: +81.1% per pupil (2002-2023), from $2,221 to $4,022/pupil
• Salary spending: +7.7% per pupil (same period)
• For every $1 added to salaries, $3.27 went to benefits
• Pension debt is a primary culprit: states failed to adequately fund pension obligations, and “catch-up” contributions now consume enormous sums
• NJ has the highest per-pupil benefits cost at $8,333/student (2023)
• Nationally, salaries fell from 59% to 55% of current expenditures (2010-2021), while benefits rose from 21% to 24%

2. Pupil Support Services / Special Education Mandates

• Pupil support services: +52.7% per pupil (2002-2020), from $566 to $864/pupil — the fastest-growing expenditure category by rate
• Special education averages $13,127 per identified student (FY 2020, 24-state sample)
• Federal IDEA funding covers only ~12% of what states/districts spend; the local gap averages $8,160/student
• The proportion of students receiving special education has trended upward
• Categories include psychologists, guidance counselors, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, health services — all mandated by law
• Connecticut: $24,443/pupil for special ed; Mississippi: $5,265/pupil

3. Staffing Growth Beyond Enrollment

• 15.1% more staff for 4.1% more students (2002-2023)
• Non-teaching roles: +22.8%; teaching roles: +7.6%
• The Edunomics Lab (Georgetown) found enrollment declined by ~750,000 since 2014 while employment grew by 600,000+ positions
• Had non-teaching staff grown at the same rate as students since 1992, schools would have an estimated additional $24.3 billion annually (Friedman Foundation)

4. Class Size Reduction

• The student-teacher ratio dropped from ~27:1 (1955) to ~15:1 (2023) — nearly halved
• This required roughly doubling the teaching workforce relative to enrollment
• Tabarrok identifies this as the primary historical cost driver, not administration

5. Administration (narrowly defined) — significant but not dominant

• General + school administration combined: ~7-8% of current expenditures
• Growth rate (18-20%) was roughly in line with instruction (20%)
• District administrative staff growth (74.9%, 2000-2017) is real but represents a small absolute base
• The 2025 DeAngelis & Makridis study (Politics & Policy) found administrative growth is more pronounced in states with stronger teachers’ union influence

The Nuanced Picture

The data suggests a synthesis:

1. Non-teaching staff have genuinely proliferated — the 702% growth since 1950 is not in dispute
2. But most of those aren’t “administrators” in the popular sense — they’re counselors, social workers, speech pathologists, instructional aides, health staff, and technology support
3. Many of these roles are legally mandated — IDEA, Section 504, state mental health requirements, and other mandates drive much of the “support services” growth
4. The spending data does not show administration taking an ever-larger share — instruction’s share has held steady at 60-61%, and administration’s share hasn’t meaningfully grown
5. The real cost story is benefits and mandated services — pension/health costs up 81%, pupil support up 53%, while salaries are nearly flat
6. Teacher pay has actually declined in real terms (-6.1%, 2002-2022) even as total spending per pupil rose 36%

6. International Comparison (OECD)

• The US spends $14,603 per student at primary through upper-secondary levels (OECD measure), above the OECD average
• Part of the US spending “lead” comes from ancillary services (athletics, student housing) that other countries don’t fund at comparable levels
• US students receive more instructional time: 974 hours/year (primary) and 1,023 hours/year (lower secondary) vs. OECD averages of 804 and 909 hours
• Despite high investment, US adult literacy scores are at the OECD average (28% at Level 1 or below), and mean literacy proficiency decreased across all age groups between 2012 and 2023

Sources:

• OECD Education at a Glance 2024 — United States
• OECD Education at a Glance 2025 — United States
• IES: Education at a Glance 2023 — US Data in Global Context

7. Key NCES Data Tables for Further Reference

Sources (Complete List)

Federal / Official

• NCES Fast Facts #66: Expenditures
• NCES COE: Public School Expenditures
• NCES CCD Glossary (2018)
• NCES Press Release: FY 2022 Expenditures (May 2024)
• NCES: Revenues & Expenditures FY 2023
• Census Bureau: Annual Survey of School System Finances
• Census Bureau: Spending Per Pupil FY 2022
• Census Bureau: FY 2023 Survey Release
• IES: National Study of Special Education Spending

Think Tanks and Independent Analysis

• Reason Foundation: 2025 K-12 Spending Spotlight
• Reason Foundation: Crossroads Report (2002-2020)
• Reason Foundation: Crossroads Revenue & Expenditure Trends
• Reason Foundation: Interactive Spending Spotlight Tool
• AEI: Administrative Bloat in US Public Schools
• AEI: The Staffing Surge / Educratification
• Education Next: Growth in Administrative Staff Far Outpaces Teacher Hiring
• FEE (Tabarrok): Rising Costs Stem from Teachers and Salaries, Not Administrative Bloat
• Heritage Foundation: How Escalating Spending Is Killing Crucial Reform
• Bellwether: Who Pays for Special Education?
• Brookings: Federal Special Education Funding Formulas

Peer-Reviewed

• DeAngelis & Makridis (2025): “Administrative Expansion in Public Schools: The Role of Unions in Resource Allocation and Student Performance,” Politics & Policy

Professional Associations

• AASA: Are There Too Many Administrators?
• DPE AFL-CIO: School Administrators — Occupational Overview

International

• OECD Education at a Glance 2024 — US Country Note
• OECD Education at a Glance 2025 — US
• NCES COE: Education Expenditures by Country

Data Aggregators

• Education Data Initiative: Public Education Spending Statistics
• USAFacts: Student-to-Teacher Ratio
• K-12 Dive: Student-Teacher Ratios Post-COVID
• K-12 Dive: Public School Funding Nears $1 Trillion

Tags

economics, education