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Jefferson County · Kentucky

Louisville, KY public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Jefferson County is the primary public district for Louisville, KY. It enrolls 95,230 students in 168 schools with 6,052 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $16,716 per pupil, 3% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
95,230NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
168Operating school count
Students per teacher
15.7Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$16,716Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Louisville

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
49.3%
$788,668,000
State revenue
37.7%
$602,410,000
Federal revenue
13%
$208,613,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Louisville 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 Louisville numbers

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

Spending of $16,716 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 50 cents of each dollar — $8,369 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 49.3% local, 37.7% state — so both the local tax base and the KY aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal aid contributes 13%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

95,230 students across 168 schools averages 567 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 15.7:1 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.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Jefferson County is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Louisville 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 Louisville datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 2102990. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.