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Maricopa County · Arizona

Mesa, AZ public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Mesa Unified District (4235) — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Mesa Unified District (4235) is the primary public district for Mesa, AZ. It enrolls 58,343 students in 78 schools with 3,554 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $12,004 per pupil, 31% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
58,343NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
78Operating school count
Students per teacher
16.4Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$12,004Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Mesa

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
38.6%
$272,097,000
State revenue
42.4%
$298,990,000
Federal revenue
19%
$133,780,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Mesa property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 47 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Mesa numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

This is a low-spending district: $12,004 per pupil, 31% under the $17,320 median and near the bottom of the metros tracked here. Only 47 cents of each dollar ($5,671 per student) is classified as instruction, so a large share goes to support services, facilities and transport — common in districts with long bus routes or older buildings.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 38.6% local, 42.4% state — so both the local tax base and the AZ aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 19% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

58,343 students across 78 schools averages 748 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 16.4:1 student-to-teacher ratio is ordinary for this set of districts (median 15.2:1). It counts all FTE teachers district-wide, so actual class sizes run higher.

Worth flagging: a federal share this large means the district is exposed to grant cycles. Title I and pandemic-era relief awards can move the per-pupil figure between survey years without any change in local taxation.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Mesa Unified District (4235) is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Mesa city limits and these figures describe that wider area. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Mesa datasets on this site.

Statewide: Arizona cities · Arizona ZIP codes · Arizona sales tax · Arizona counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 0404970. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.