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Honolulu County · Hawaii

Honolulu, HI public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Hawaii Department of Education — federal education data, not a star rating.

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

Quick answer

Hawaii Department of Education is the primary public district for Honolulu, HI. It enrolls 170,209 students in 295 schools with 11,983 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $17,656 per pupil, 2% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
170,209NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
295Operating school count
Students per teacher
14.2Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$17,656Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Honolulu

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
0.6%
$19,108,000
State revenue
88%
$2,851,764,000
Federal revenue
11.4%
$371,018,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Honolulu property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 57 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Honolulu numbers

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

Spending of $17,656 per pupil sits close to the $17,320 metro median — within 2 percent of it, so budget is not what sets this district apart. Instruction takes 57 cents of each dollar — $9,997 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

The state carries this district: 88% of revenue arrives from HI state aid and only 0.6% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal aid contributes 11.4%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

170,209 students across 295 schools averages 577 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 14.2:1 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.

Worth flagging: with state aid at 88% of revenue, comparisons to districts in other states say more about HI's funding formula than about Honolulu itself.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Hawaii Department of Education is a large city district; figures are the district total (LEAID 1500030) and individual schools inside it vary widely. 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 Honolulu datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 1500030. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.