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Davidson County · Tennessee

Nashville, TN public schools

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

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

Quick answer

Davidson County is the primary public district for Nashville, TN. It enrolls 80,651 students in 161 schools with 4,975 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $15,097 per pupil, 13% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
80,651NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
161Operating school count
Students per teacher
16.2Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$15,097Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Nashville

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
58.9%
$889,203,000
State revenue
27.8%
$419,665,000
Federal revenue
13.2%
$199,767,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Nashville property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 49 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Nashville numbers

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

$15,097 per pupil is 13% below the $17,320 metro median; only 34% of tracked districts spend less. Only 49 cents of each dollar ($7,352 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 — 58.9% local, 27.8% state — so both the local tax base and the TN aid formula matter to what this district can spend. Federal aid contributes 13.2%, near the typical share for a large urban district.

80,651 students across 161 schools averages 501 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 16.2:1 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.

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

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

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

NCES LEAID 4703180. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.