Skip to content
ZipNumbers

Suffolk County · Massachusetts

Boston, MA public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Boston is the primary public district for Boston, MA. It enrolls 46,367 students in 109 schools with 4,311 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $39,887 per pupil, 130% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
46,367NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
109Operating school count
Students per teacher
10.8Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$39,887Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Boston

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
68.4%
$1,132,582,000
State revenue
26.2%
$434,145,000
Federal revenue
5.3%
$87,942,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Boston property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 47 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Boston numbers

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

$39,887 per pupil puts this district in the top spending tier of the metros tracked here — 130% above the $17,320 median and higher than 98% of them. Only 47 cents of each dollar ($18,707 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: 68.4% of revenue comes from local sources — overwhelmingly property tax — against 26.2% from the state. That makes the district's budget move with Boston property values and levy votes rather than with the MA legislature. Federal aid is a small 5.3% of the total, so national funding changes have limited effect on this budget.

46,367 students across 109 schools averages 425 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). Staffing is generous: 10.8 students per FTE teacher versus the 15.2 median, 4.4 fewer students per teacher.

Worth flagging: high spending here is bought locally. A property-tax-funded budget at this level means school quality and Boston 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.

Figures cover Boston (LEAID 2502790) as one unit, not any single school in Boston. 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 Boston datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 2502790. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.