Skip to content
ZipNumbers

Pulaski County · Arkansas

Little Rock, AR public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Little Rock School District — federal education data, not a star rating.

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

Quick answer

Little Rock School District is the primary public district for Little Rock, AR. It enrolls 21,456 students in 40 schools with 1,424 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $15,475 per pupil, 11% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
21,456NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
40Operating school count
Students per teacher
15.1Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$15,475Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Little Rock

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
55.6%
$191,475,000
State revenue
27.8%
$95,814,000
Federal revenue
16.6%
$57,245,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Little Rock property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 50 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Little Rock numbers

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

Spending of $15,475 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 11 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction takes 50 cents of each dollar — $7,796 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 55.6% local, 27.8% state — so both the local tax base and the AR aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal dollars are an outsized 16.6% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

21,456 students across 40 schools averages 536 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 15.1:1 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.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Figures cover Little Rock School District (LEAID 0509000) as one unit, not any single school in Little Rock. 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 Little Rock datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 0509000. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.