Federal, state, and local governments provide $878.2 billion or $17,700 per pupil to fund K-12 public education. The difference between spending and funding is $21.0 billion or $420 per pupil. The federal government provides 13.6% of funding for public K-12 education.
Only 9 Percent of Federal Outlays Goes Toward Children
Federal spending on children (which excludes tax reductions) totaled $567 billion in 2023, or 9 percent of the federal budget.
Through Federal Student Aid (a performance-based organization), the U.S. Department of Education awards more than $120 billion a year in grants, work-study funds, and low-interest loans to approximately 13 million students.
Spending per person totaled $19,434 per person, a 13% decrease from 2021. Expenditures were distributed across several major categories, with the largest going toward grants to state and local governments at $3,707 per person on average, and Social Security at $3,657 per person on average.
CBO: U.S. Federal spending and revenue components for fiscal year 2023. Major expenditure categories are healthcare, Social Security, and defense; income and payroll taxes are the primary revenue sources. During FY2022, the federal government spent $6.3 trillion.
This view (https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/agency) suggests Defense spending is $1.1 trillion in 2023 while Department of Education funding is $208 billion. That does not include college funding. The overwhelming majority of education funding is at the state or lower level, not federal.
From 1997 to 2021, the Education Department estimated that payments from federal direct student loans would generate $114 billion for the government. But the GAO found that, as of 2021, the program has actually cost the government an estimated $197 billion.
All federal student aid programs – which include student loans, Pell Grants and work-study, for example – are funded by federal tax dollars paid by U.S. citizens. Each year, Congress appropriates money to fund these programs as part of the annual budget process.
Among the 41 states with reported data, New York schools led the nation in per-pupil spending in 2021 and 2022, spending $26,571 in 2021 and $27,504 in 2022.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 temporarily expanded the child tax credit for the 2021 tax year to $3,600 per child younger than age 6 and $3,000 per child up to age 17.
Most U.S. families with children will get six monthly payments from the government in 2021, starting July 15. Parents and guardians may spend this money – $300 per child under 6 and $250 for every kid or teen who is 6 and up – on groceries, computers, child care, sneakers or however else they see fit.
The NSLP provides 8.5 million full-price lunches daily. The NSLP serves 4.7 billion lunches per calendar school year. Congress spends $15.8 billion annually on the NSLP program. To be eligible for reduced-price lunch, a family of 4 must make less than $57,720 per year.
As of now, the United States education ranking is in the 13th place with a score of 0.883, trailing behind countries like Germany (2nd) and New Zealand (3rd). In the QS World University Rankings 2023, 11 out of the top 20 universities are American, including prestigious institutions like MIT, Stanford, and Harvard.
On average, college students spend $2,000 in spending money each year. Set your college student up for success by helping them create a budget early on. There are many different ways to set a budget, but remember that college student budgets aren't one-size-fits-all.
Federal Student Aid, part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the largest provider of student financial aid in the nation. At the office of Federal Student Aid, more than 1,400 employees assist more than 10 million students each year.
Most students are not required to report student aid on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form because most scholarships and grants are not taxable, unless those award amounts exceed the total amount the student paid for tuition, fees, books, supplies, and required equipment.
The average federal student loan debt is $37,853 per borrower. Outstanding private student loan debt totals $128.8 billion. The average student borrows over $30,000 to pursue a bachelor's degree.
Many students borrow to fund a portion of their college expenses. Each year, 30 to 40 percent of all undergraduate students take federal student loans; 70 percent of students who receive a bachelor's degree have education debt by the time they graduate.
If you work full time for a government or nonprofit organization, you may qualify for forgiveness of the entire remaining balance of your Direct Loans after you've made 120 qualifying payments—i.e., at least 10 years of payments. To benefit from PSLF, you need to repay your federal student loans under an IDR plan.
Mandatory outlays by the federal government totaled $4.1 trillion in 2022; nearly half was for Social Security and Medicare. The largest increases over the past 20 years have been for the major health care programs and student loans.
APRIL 25, 2024 – Nationally, public school spending per student rose 8.9% from $14,358 in FY 2021 to $15,633 in FY 2022, according to new data from the 2022 Annual Survey of School System Finances released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
About one-sixth of federal spending goes to national defense. CBO estimates the budgetary effects of legislation related to national security and assesses the cost-effectiveness of current and proposed defense programs. CBO also analyzes federal programs and issues related to veterans.