LADY BUDGETDOWN: MIDLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS: THE 10-YEAR LEDGER
Lady Budgetdown has officially made her way into Midland County. 🔎
First up: Midland Public Schools (56010).
As always, we're starting with the same ten-year financial comparison we've used for other districts:
2014–15 vs. 2024–25
And Midland has a few numbers that immediately stand out.
🎒 ENROLLMENT
Average pupil count declined from:
7,741 → 7,408.03
That's approximately:
333 fewer pupils — a 4.3% decline.
Now let's follow the money.
💰 TOTAL FUNDING PER PUPIL
2014–15: $10,247
2024–25: $14,824
Increase:
+$4,577 — or +44.7%
That's about 8.8 percentage points above our 35.83% inflation benchmark.
But that increase wasn't distributed evenly across the categories we're tracking.
📚 INSTRUCTION PER PUPIL
$7,005 → $9,016
Increase:
+$2,011 — or +28.7%
That's approximately 7.1 percentage points below inflation.
🔎 INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT PER PUPIL
$1,119 → $2,154
Increase:
+$1,035 — or +92.5%
That's approximately:
56.7 percentage points ABOVE inflation.
That's one of the numbers I'm putting a bookmark next to. 📌
It doesn't tell us why Instructional Support increased that much.
It tells us where we may want to look next.
🏛� BUSINESS & ADMINISTRATION PER PUPIL
$958 → $1,603
Increase:
+$645 — or +67.3%
That's approximately 31.5 percentage points above inflation.
🔧 OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE PER PUPIL
$697 → $941
Increase:
+$244 — or +35.0%
That's essentially in line with our inflation benchmark — about 0.8 percentage points below it.
🍎 AND THEN THERE'S THE TEACHER SALARY NUMBER
This one deserves some attention.
Midland's reported average teacher salary went from:
$72,486 in 2014–15
to
$67,091 in 2024–25.
That's:
−$5,395 — or −7.4%
This isn't simply a case where teacher salary increased but failed to keep pace with inflation.
The reported average actually decreased in nominal dollars.
So over the same ten-year period:
Enrollment: −4.3%
Total Funding/Pupil: +44.7%
Instruction/Pupil: +28.7%
Instructional Support/Pupil: +92.5%
Business & Administration/Pupil: +67.3%
Operations & Maintenance/Pupil: +35.0%
Average Teacher Salary: −7.4%
Those numbers don't tell us whether any individual spending decision was right or wrong.
And they don't tell us why Instructional Support and Business & Administration increased considerably faster than other categories.
But they certainly tell us what to look at next.
And fortunately, Lady Budgetdown already has the staffing records sitting on the desk. 😉
The ledger is open. We're just getting started.
With receipts and respect.
#LadyBudgetdown #MidlandPublicSchools #MidlandSchools #MidlandCounty #SchoolFinance #EducationTransparency #FollowTheMoney #midlandpublicschools