Chart

Washington school money per student after inflation, 2015-16 to 2024-25

Per-student General Fund spending from all sources, and state plus local revenue alone, in 2024-25 dollars, adjusted with national and with Seattle-area consumer prices.

Credit: FactHub Research Team; data from OSPI F-196 reports, BLS and BEA

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Line chart, 2015-16 to 2024-25, in 2024-25 dollars. All school spending per student rises from about $15,300 to $19,371 with U.S. prices and from about $16,200 with Seattle prices; both are higher in 2024-25 than in 2018-19 ($17,863 and $18,551). State and local money per student rises to $17,141 (U.S. prices) or $17,801 (Seattle prices) in 2018-19, dips to about $16,400-16,800 in 2021-22, and ends at $17,733. — Counting all money schools spent, Washington spent more per student in 2024-25 than in 2018-19 after inflation: 8.4% more with national prices and 4.4% more with Seattle prices. Counting only state and local money, it was 3.5% more with national prices and 0.4% less with Seattle prices. State and local money per student was lowest in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

What this chart asks

After inflation, do Washington public schools have more or less money per student than six years earlier?

Why it is shown this way

A line per measure and price index shows how the answer depends on both choices.
The y axis starts near $14,000, not zero, so the year-to-year differences of a few percent are visible; the axis is labeled in dollars so readers can judge size.

Data and accessibility

Download chart data · Open accessible table · Download PNG · Download SVG

Dataset wa-k12-funding-test-levels, analysis real-per-student-trend

Sources

This chart draws on the sources of the dataset versions it visualizes.

Washington K-12 money per student after inflation, state test levels and NAEP ranks, 2015-2026

OSPI Financial Reporting Summary 2024-25, Section One General Fund expenditures per pupil, ten-year comparison (Table Two)
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; values reproduced with attribution.

Reliability: Government. Compiled by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction from every district's year-end F-196 financial report. OSPI is Reykdal's agency, but these are audited accounting totals, not advocacy figures.
OSPI 10-year F-196 data, 2015-16 to 2024-25 (spreadsheet) Statewide General Fund revenue by source, expenditures by program, and annual average FTE enrollment
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; values reproduced with attribution.

Reliability: Government. Same district year-end reports as the summary, by revenue code and program. Revenue codes 1000-2000 are local and 3000-4000 are state; federal is 5000-6000.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Annual Survey of School System Finances, summary tables Washington per-pupil current spending, fiscal 2019-2024 (Table 20)
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

Reliability: Government. Federal survey of every state's school finances on a common definition: current spending excluding capital outlay and debt service, per pupil in fall enrollment. Independent of OSPI's own reports.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 Annual Survey of School System Finances, summary tables Washington per-pupil current spending, fiscal 2014-2019 (Table 20)
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

Reliability: Government. Earlier edition of the same federal survey.
BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, U.S. city average (CUUR0000SA0) National price index for inflation adjustment
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

Reliability: Government. Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly consumer price index, not seasonally adjusted.
BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (CUURS49DSA0) Seattle-area price index, the index OSPI uses
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

Reliability: Government. Bureau of Labor Statistics bimonthly consumer price index for the Seattle metro area.
BEA price index for state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment (via FRED B829RG3A086NBEA) Price index for what state and local governments buy
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

Reliability: Government. Bureau of Economic Analysis annual implicit price index for state and local government purchases, mostly employee compensation; 2017 = 100.
OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2018-19 (data.wa.gov 4h5k-di3v) Statewide spring 2019 test results by level
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file; statewide All Students rows for all grades.
OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2023-24 (data.wa.gov 5i5h-c5pk) Statewide spring 2024 test results by level, the latest results when Reykdal spoke
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file; statewide All Students rows for all grades, with counts of students expected and tested.
OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2024-25 (data.wa.gov qh4i-zmju) Statewide spring 2025 test results by level
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file.
OSPI Report Card Assessment Data 2025-26 (data.wa.gov fusr-6kv7) Statewide spring 2026 test results by level
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

Reliability: Government. OSPI's official assessment file.
data.wa.gov Report Card Assessment Data series (2021-22 and 2022-23 files) Statewide spring 2022 and 2023 test results by level
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state open data. Open data; reproduced with attribution.

Reliability: Government. Catalog listing of OSPI's yearly assessment files on the state open-data portal.
OSPI, 2025 assessment data press conference slides (September 2025) OSPI's definitions of Level 2 and Level 3 and its headline Level 2+ shares
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; quoted with attribution.

Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. Reykdal's agency; its framing of Level 2 as grade-level knowledge is one side of the dispute. The numbers match the data.wa.gov files.
NAEP Data Service and NCES State Snapshot reports, Washington Washington and state NAEP averages and significance tests, 2013-2024
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

Reliability: Government. National Center for Education Statistics. Same test in every state, so it is independent of Washington's own test. Averages came from the NAEP Data Service API and were checked against the State Snapshot reports.
OSPI press conference slides, September 10, 2026 OSPI's own chart of state and local funding per student after inflation
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Washington state government public record. Public record; quoted with attribution.

Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. OSPI uses this chart to ask the Legislature for more money. It shows $18,315 in 2018-19 and $17,733 in 2024-25, adjusted with the Seattle CPI.
Washington Policy Center, "Reykdal confronted by state data, blames partisanship for bad results" (David Boze, June 20, 2025) WPC's transcript of the FOX 13 interview and WPC's own test-score claim
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted; short quotations for fact-checking. Quoted briefly with attribution.

Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. WPC is a party to the dispute. Its transcript is the only text of the interview we found; the video has no captions.
Washington Policy Center, "OSPI scrubs website of key data" (Todd Myers, October 8, 2025) WPC's NAEP ranking claim
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted; short quotations for fact-checking. Quoted briefly with attribution.

Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. WPC is a party to the dispute.
FOX 13 Seattle, "One-on-one with Washington superintendent of public instruction Chris Reykdal" (video, June 17, 2025) Original interview
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted broadcast; linked, not reproduced. Not redistributed.

Reliability: News report. The original video. The page has no transcript or captions.
Key Peninsula News, "Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal seeks third term" (October 2, 2024) Earlier Reykdal statement of the same inflation claim
Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyrighted; short quotations for fact-checking. Quoted briefly with attribution.

Reliability: News report. Community newspaper interview with Reykdal during his 2024 reelection campaign.

Limitations

Y axis does not start at zero.
All school spending includes federal COVID relief from 2020-21 to 2023-24.
General Fund only; excludes construction and debt service.
Seattle-area prices rose faster than national prices, so the Seattle lines start higher and rise less.

Articles and datasets using this chart

Article School spending per student in Washington beat inflation since 2019.

Version details

The exact citing versions, and the version of this chart each cites.

Article wa-reykdal-school-funding-scores — version 2 (published) cites version 1

Node: chart:wa-school-money-per-student-real