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Orleans Parish · Louisiana

New Orleans, LA public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Orleans Parish is the primary public district for New Orleans, LA. It enrolls 2,040 students in 5 schools with 140 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $120,035 per pupil, 593% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
2,040NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
5Operating school count
Students per teacher
14.6Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$120,035Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in New Orleans

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
88.5%
$354,018,000
State revenue
5.1%
$20,563,000
Federal revenue
6.3%
$25,389,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the New Orleans property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 8 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the New Orleans numbers

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

$120,035 per pupil puts this district in the top spending tier of the metros tracked here — 593% above the $17,320 median and higher than 99% of them. Only 8 cents of each dollar ($9,332 per student) is classified as instruction, so a large share goes to support services, facilities and transport — common in districts with long bus routes or older buildings.

Money is raised locally: 88.5% of revenue comes from local sources — overwhelmingly property tax — against 5.1% from the state. That makes the district's budget move with New Orleans property values and levy votes rather than with the LA legislature. Federal aid is a small 6.3% of the total, so national funding changes have limited effect on this budget.

2,040 students across 5 schools averages 408 students per building, and the district is smaller than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 14.6:1 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: high spending here is bought locally. A property-tax-funded budget at this level means school quality and New Orleans housing costs are tightly coupled — the tax bill on a home is effectively the school funding mechanism.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Orleans Parish is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the New Orleans 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 New Orleans datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 2201170. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.