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Los Angeles County · California

Long Beach, CA public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Long Beach Unified is the primary public district for Long Beach, CA. It enrolls 65,554 students in 84 schools with 2,733 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $16,766 per pupil, 3% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
65,554NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
84Operating school count
Students per teacher
24Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$16,766Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Long Beach

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
24.9%
$314,775,000
State revenue
62%
$784,916,000
Federal revenue
13.2%
$166,770,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Long Beach property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 52 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Long Beach numbers

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

Spending of $16,766 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 3 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction takes 52 cents of each dollar — $8,670 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

The state carries this district: 62% of revenue arrives from CA state aid and only 24.9% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal aid contributes 13.2%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

65,554 students across 84 schools averages 780 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is thin relative to peers: 24 students per FTE teacher against a 15.2 median, 8.8 students more per teacher.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Long Beach Unified is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Long Beach 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 Long Beach 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 0622500. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.