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Fresno County · California

Fresno, CA public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Fresno Unified is the primary public district for Fresno, CA. It enrolls 69,668 students in 101 schools with 3,496 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $17,402 per pupil, 0% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
69,668NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
101Operating school count
Students per teacher
19.9Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$17,402Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Fresno

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
12.4%
$159,354,000
State revenue
72.1%
$927,308,000
Federal revenue
15.6%
$200,210,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Fresno property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 54 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Fresno numbers

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

Spending of $17,402 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 0 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction takes 54 cents of each dollar — $9,376 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

The state carries this district: 72.1% of revenue arrives from CA state aid and only 12.4% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal dollars are an outsized 15.6% of revenue, a share that tracks concentrated student poverty (Title I) and special-education enrollment.

69,668 students across 101 schools averages 690 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is thin relative to peers: 19.9 students per FTE teacher against a 15.2 median, 4.7 students more per teacher.

Worth flagging: with state aid at 72.1% of revenue, comparisons to districts in other states say more about CA's funding formula than about Fresno itself.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Fresno Unified is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Fresno 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 Fresno 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 0614550. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.