Skip to content
ZipNumbers

Kern County · California

Bakersfield, CA public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Bakersfield City — federal education data, not a star rating.

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

Quick answer

Bakersfield City is the primary public district for Bakersfield, CA. It enrolls 28,835 students in 45 schools with 1,336 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $16,075 per pupil, 7% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
28,835NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
45Operating school count
Students per teacher
21.6Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$16,075Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Bakersfield

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
6.9%
$36,598,000
State revenue
76%
$404,943,000
Federal revenue
17.2%
$91,547,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Bakersfield property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 60 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Bakersfield numbers

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

Spending of $16,075 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 7 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction absorbs 60 cents of every dollar ($9,624 per student), an unusually classroom-heavy split.

The state carries this district: 76% of revenue arrives from CA state aid and only 6.9% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal dollars are an outsized 17.2% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

28,835 students across 45 schools averages 641 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is thin relative to peers: 21.6 students per FTE teacher against a 15.2 median, 6.4 students more per teacher.

Worth flagging: with state aid at 76% of revenue, comparisons to districts in other states say more about CA's funding formula than about Bakersfield itself.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Figures cover Bakersfield City (LEAID 0603630) as one unit, not any single school in Bakersfield. 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 Bakersfield datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 0603630. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.