Florida school districts received $28.9 billion in government funding in 2006-07, the fourth-largest amount in the country, according to a new Census Bureau report. Only California, Texas and New York schools collected more.
Sunshine State schools received $2.5 billion from the federal government, $11.6 billion from state sources and $14.8 billion from local sources. The federal share was 8.6 percent of the total, slightly above the national average of 8.3 percent.
The infusion of an unprecedented $100 billion in federal education stimulus money likely will change the equation in coming years, said Russ Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
If distributed over one year, the stimulus money would account for about 20 percent of per-pupil revenue - a huge windfall for districts grappling with budget shortfalls and falling property value assessments.
In the Tampa Bay area, the federal share of funding in 2006-07 was 11.9 percent for Hillsborough County schools, 7 percent for Pasco and 8.8 percent for Pinellas, the report states.
Florida schools spent an average of $8,514 per student, ranking the state 35th in the country. Hillsborough County spent $7,781 per student; Pasco, $7,940; and Pinellas, $8,656.
The report shows that Louisiana received the highest percentage of federal revenue, with that funding making up 17.6 percent of the state's per-pupil revenue. New Jersey had the smallest percentage of federal revenue, with 4 percent.
Public schools across the country spent an average of $9,666 per pupil, an increase of 5.8 percent over the previous year, the report states.
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