Currently available expenditures for public elementary and secondary education totaled $424.6 billion in the Federal fiscal year (FY) 05 (October 1, 2004 through September, 2005, mostly for the 2004-5 academic year), with $280.0 billion (65.9%) spent on instruction and related activities, $22.1 billion (5.2%) on student support services, $46.8 billion (11.0%) on administration, and $75.7 billion (17.8%) on operations.

Approximately $487.8 billion was collected in revenues for public elementary and secondary education of 48,794,911 students in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in fiscal year 2005 (FY 05). State and local governments together provided $443.0 billion (90.8 percent) of all revenues. The federal government contributed $44.8 billion (9.2 percent) of all revenues.

Per pupil expenditures (PPE) for public elementary and secondary education were $8,701 in FY 05, including $5,737 on instruction and instruction-related activities (e.g., salaries and benefits for teachers, teaching assistants, librarians and library aides, in-service teacher trainers, curriculum development, student assessment, technology, and supplies and purchased services related to these activities).

PPEs range from $13,703 ($9,425 for instruction) in New York to $5,216 ($3,302 for instruction) in Utah.

The number of items learned per pubil was not included in this report. Nor was the cost of the average number of academic yearly progress points. With those, board of education members could evaluate teacher performance against annual, or even more frequent, increases in student learning to determine teacher performance pay.

Then, educators can distribute expenditures across instruction, advanced technologies (such as Tablet PCs, UMPCs and other mobile PCs), and administration according to learning expectations as measured outcomes.

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