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Baltimore City · Maryland

Baltimore, MD public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Baltimore City Public Schools is the primary public district for Baltimore, MD. It enrolls 75,995 students in 154 schools with 5,008 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $20,673 per pupil, 19% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
75,995NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
154Operating school count
Students per teacher
15.2Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$20,673Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Baltimore

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
26.8%
$448,685,000
State revenue
59.9%
$1,002,213,000
Federal revenue
13.3%
$221,944,000

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

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

At $20,673 per pupil the district spends 19% more than the $17,320 metro median, outspending 69% of the districts covered. Instruction takes 57 cents of each dollar — $11,733 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 26.8% local, 59.9% state — so both the local tax base and the MD aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal aid contributes 13.3%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

75,995 students across 154 schools averages 493 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 15.2:1 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.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Baltimore City Public Schools is a large city district; figures are the district total (LEAID 2400090) 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 Baltimore datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 2400090. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.