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Sedgwick County · Kansas

Wichita, KS public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Wichita is the primary public district for Wichita, KS. It enrolls 46,796 students in 88 schools with 4,462 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $15,153 per pupil, 13% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
46,796NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
88Operating school count
Students per teacher
10.5Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$15,153Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Wichita

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
18.1%
$135,087,000
State revenue
72.4%
$539,479,000
Federal revenue
9.5%
$70,949,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Wichita property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 50 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Wichita numbers

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

$15,153 per pupil is 13% below the $17,320 metro median; only 36% of tracked districts spend less. Instruction takes 50 cents of each dollar — $7,584 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

The state carries this district: 72.4% of revenue arrives from KS state aid and only 18.1% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal aid contributes 9.5%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

46,796 students across 88 schools averages 532 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is generous: 10.5 students per FTE teacher versus the 15.2 median, 4.7 fewer students per teacher.

Worth flagging: with state aid at 72.4% of revenue, comparisons to districts in other states say more about KS's funding formula than about Wichita itself.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Figures cover Wichita (LEAID 2012990) as one unit, not any single school in Wichita. 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 Wichita datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 2012990. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.