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Philadelphia County · Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Philadelphia City SD is the primary public district for Philadelphia, PA. It enrolls 118,335 students in 219 schools with 8,143 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $31,422 per pupil, 81% above the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
118,335NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
219Operating school count
Students per teacher
14.5Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$31,422Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Philadelphia

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
42.4%
$1,616,578,000
State revenue
45.5%
$1,733,166,000
Federal revenue
12.1%
$463,158,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Philadelphia property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 26 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Philadelphia numbers

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

$31,422 per pupil puts this district in the top spending tier of the metros tracked here — 81% above the $17,320 median and higher than 94% of them. Only 26 cents of each dollar ($8,115 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.

Funding is split roughly evenly — 42.4% local, 45.5% state — so both the local tax base and the PA aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal aid contributes 12.1%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

118,335 students across 219 schools averages 540 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 14.5:1 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.

Philadelphia City SD is a large city district; figures are the district total (LEAID 4218990) 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 Philadelphia datasets on this site.

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

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

NCES LEAID 4218990. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.