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Santa Clara County · California

San Jose, CA public schools

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

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

Quick answer

San Jose Unified is the primary public district for San Jose, CA. It enrolls 25,451 students in 42 schools with 1,135 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $15,205 per pupil, 12% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
25,451NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
42Operating school count
Students per teacher
22.4Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$15,205Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in San Jose

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
68%
$347,254,000
State revenue
25.4%
$129,926,000
Federal revenue
6.6%
$33,504,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the San Jose 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 San Jose numbers

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

$15,205 per pupil is 12% below the $17,320 metro median; only 37% of tracked districts spend less. Instruction takes 54 cents of each dollar — $8,277 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Money is raised locally: 68% of revenue comes from local sources — overwhelmingly property tax — against 25.4% from the state. That makes the district's budget move with San Jose property values and levy votes rather than with the CA legislature. Federal aid is a small 6.6% of the total, so national funding changes have limited effect on this budget.

25,451 students across 42 schools averages 606 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is thin relative to peers: 22.4 students per FTE teacher against a 15.2 median, 7.2 students more per teacher.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

San Jose Unified is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the San Jose 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 San Jose 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 0634590. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.