Washington K-12 money per student, 2014-15 to 2024-25

What this dataset measures

Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in June 2025 that schools have less money per student after inflation than six years earlier and that about three quarters of students are at grade level. The Washington Policy Center said about 60% of students are not on track in math and 50% in English, and that Washington's fourth-grade NAEP math rank fell from 10th to 27th. Each claim depends on which money is counted, which price index is used, and which test cut line is used, so the dataset keeps every variant side by side.

Geography

Washington, United States

Unit of observation

Statewide value per school year, per test year and subject, or per NAEP year, grade and subject

Update cadence

Annual; refresh when OSPI publishes the 2025-26 financial summary (about December 2026) and Census publishes fiscal 2025 school finance data.

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Washington K-12 money per student, 2014-15 to 2024-25

Five measures of per-student money, each in current dollars and in 2024-25 dollars under U.S. CPI-U, the BEA state and local government price index, and Seattle-area CPI-U.

Unit of observation: School year and measure

per-student-funding.csv text/csv · 2.9 KB (2,920 bytes)

All 54 rows 6 columns Download the file

All 54 rows

school_year	measure_id	nominal_per_student US dollars	real_2024_25_us_cpi 2024-25 US dollars	real_2024_25_sl_deflator 2024-25 US dollars	real_2024_25_seattle_cpi 2024-25 US dollars
2014-15	gf-spending-all-funds	10747	14427	14543	—
2014-15	gf-spending-excl-covid	10747	14427	14542	—
2014-15	state-revenue	7505	10076	10156	—
2014-15	state-local-revenue	9959	13369	13476	—
2014-15	census-current-spending	10735	14411	14526	—
2015-16	gf-spending-all-funds	11450	15268	15518	16245
2015-16	gf-spending-excl-covid	11450	15269	15518	16246
2015-16	state-revenue	8244	10993	11172	11696
2015-16	state-local-revenue	10751	14336	14570	15253
2015-16	census-current-spending	11534	15381	15632	16364
2016-17	gf-spending-all-funds	11898	15579	15926	16427
2016-17	gf-spending-excl-covid	11898	15579	15926	16427
2016-17	state-revenue	8530	11169	11417	11776
2016-17	state-local-revenue	11052	14471	14793	15259
2016-17	census-current-spending	11989	15699	16048	16553
2017-18	gf-spending-all-funds	12835	16436	16623	17179
2017-18	gf-spending-excl-covid	12835	16435	16623	17178
2017-18	state-revenue	9357	11982	12119	12524
2017-18	state-local-revenue	11965	15322	15497	16014
2017-18	census-current-spending	12995	16640	16830	17393
2018-19	gf-spending-all-funds	14239	17863	17946	18551
2018-19	gf-spending-excl-covid	14239	17864	17946	18551
2018-19	state-revenue	11507	14436	14503	14992
2018-19	state-local-revenue	13663	17141	17220	17801
2018-19	census-current-spending	14223	17843	17926	18530
2019-20	gf-spending-all-funds	14660	18108	18086	18717
2019-20	gf-spending-excl-covid	14660	18108	18087	18718
2019-20	state-revenue	12012	14838	14820	15337
2019-20	state-local-revenue	13866	17128	17107	17704
2019-20	census-current-spending	14556	17979	17958	18584
2020-21	gf-spending-all-funds	15719	18979	18483	19554
2020-21	gf-spending-excl-covid	15419	18617	18130	19180
2020-21	state-revenue	12214	14748	14362	15194
2020-21	state-local-revenue	14284	17247	16796	17769
2020-21	census-current-spending	15570	18799	18308	19368
2021-22	gf-spending-all-funds	17214	19393	18813	19866
2021-22	gf-spending-excl-covid	16267	18327	17778	18773
2021-22	state-revenue	12295	13851	13437	14188
2021-22	state-local-revenue	14578	16423	15932	16823
2021-22	census-current-spending	17119	19287	18710	19756
2022-23	gf-spending-all-funds	18313	19416	19074	19638
2022-23	gf-spending-excl-covid	17591	18650	18322	18864
2022-23	state-revenue	13259	14058	13811	14219
2022-23	state-local-revenue	15819	16771	16476	16963
2022-23	census-current-spending	18181	19276	18937	19497
2023-24	gf-spending-all-funds	18681	19173	19057	19168
2023-24	gf-spending-excl-covid	18336	18820	18705	18814
2023-24	state-revenue	13956	14324	14236	14319
2023-24	state-local-revenue	16694	17134	17029	17129
2023-24	census-current-spending	18564	19054	18938	19048
2024-25	gf-spending-all-funds	19371	19371	19371	19371
2024-25	gf-spending-excl-covid	19368	19368	19368	19368
2024-25	state-revenue	14875	14875	14875	14875
2024-25	state-local-revenue	17733	17733	17733	17733

6 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
school_year	string	School year, July to June.	—	observed
measure_id	string	gf-spending-all-funds: OSPI General Fund expenditures per pupil, all fund sources (F-196 Table Two). gf-spending-excl-covid: the same minus COVID relief programs 11-14, 19 and 23. state-local-revenue: General Fund revenue codes 1000-4000 per pupil, the measure OSPI's 2026 chart uses. state-revenue: codes 3000-4000 only. census-current-spending: Census per-pupil current spending.	—	observed
nominal_per_student	number	Dollars per student in that year's prices.	US dollars	observed
real_2024_25_us_cpi	number	Nominal value in 2024-25 dollars using U.S. CPI-U.	2024-25 US dollars	derived
real_2024_25_sl_deflator	number	Nominal value in 2024-25 dollars using the BEA state and local government price index.	2024-25 US dollars	derived
real_2024_25_seattle_cpi	number	Nominal value in 2024-25 dollars using Seattle-area CPI-U. Not computed for 2014-15.	2024-25 US dollars	derived

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• analysis-results.json Documentation · application/json · 16.7 KB (17,082 bytes)

  Structured results of the saved analyses, computed from the curated tables.

Sources

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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 and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Every nominal value is copied from an OSPI, Census, data.wa.gov or NAEP file named in sources. Real values multiply the nominal value by the ratio of the 2024-25 school-year price index to that year's school-year price index. School-year price indexes are July-June means of monthly U.S. CPI-U, the mean of the six bimonthly Seattle-area CPI-U readings from August to June, and the mean of the two calendar-year values of the BEA state and local government price index. Test shares use OSPI's denominator: students reaching a level on Smarter Balanced or the alternate test (WA-AIM), divided by all students expected to test.

• Money per student uses OSPI's annual average full-time-equivalent enrollment; Census uses fall enrollment, so the two series differ slightly.
• General Fund spending excludes construction, debt service and transportation vehicle funds.
• Federal COVID relief (ESSER) raised spending from 2020-21 to 2023-24; a separate measure removes the main COVID program codes, but some first-round relief may sit in other codes.
• The Seattle-area CPI tracks consumer prices in one metro area and rose faster than national prices (about 30% vs 25% from 2018-19 to 2024-25). School costs are mostly salaries set by statewide formulas.
• Census fiscal 2025 data were not yet released, so the Census series ends in 2023-24.
• Math Level 2+ for 2024 computes to 62.8% from rounded published percentages; OSPI's count-based figure is 62.9%.
• NAEP ranks use unrounded averages among the 50 states; most neighboring ranks are statistical ties.