📜 DEAREST READERS, WHERE DID THE GENERAL FUND MONEY GO?
Lady Budgetdown has already examined Croswell-Lexington Community Schools through enrollment, staffing, per-pupil finances, and employee compensation.
But there is another way to look at a school district's finances:
How is the General Fund actually being spent? 🪶
For this one, I pulled two separate Michigan School Data Budget Transparency reports: **Operating Expenditures** and **Personnel Expenditures** and compared **2021-22 with 2024-25**.
And there is some important context before we begin:
👩�🎓 **Student count fell from 2,250 to 1,708.**
That's **542 fewer students - a decline of 24.1%.**
Now, open the ledger.
📚 **OPERATING EXPENDITURES**
💰 **Total General Fund Expenditures**
$23,817,186 → $25,159,506
**Up $1,342,320 - 5.6%**
🍎 **Instruction**
$14,676,311 → $16,103,254
**Up $1,426,943 - 9.7%**
And here's something particularly worth noting:
Instruction represented **61.62% of General Fund expenditures** in 2021-22.
By 2024-25, it represented **64.00%**.
That's an increase of **2.38 percentage points** going toward instruction.
Meanwhile:
🏫 **School Administration**
$1,528,636 → $1,438,374
**Down $90,262 - 5.9%**
🏛� **General Administration**
$744,531 → $721,287
**Down $23,244 - 3.1%**
🔧 **Operations & Maintenance**
$2,169,792 → $2,448,970
**Up $279,178 - 12.9%**
Now let us turn to the separate **Personnel Expenditure** report.
👥 **Total Personnel Expenditures**
$17,077,425 → $17,802,441
**Up $725,016 - 4.2%**
But as a percentage of General Fund expenditures:
**71.70% → 70.76%**
That's actually **down 0.94 percentage points.**
💵 **Salaries**
$9,642,696 → $10,257,720
**Up $615,024 - 6.4%**
🏥 **Employee Insurance Benefits**
$2,322,167 → $2,141,742
**Down $180,425 - 7.8%**
📋 **FICA / Retirement / Unemployment / Workers' Compensation**
$5,057,781 → $5,303,860
**Up $246,079 - 4.9%**
And this is why Lady Budgetdown believes context matters.
During a period in which student count declined **24.1%**, General Fund expenditures increased **5.6%**.
But simply stopping there would miss an important part of the story.
**Instruction spending increased 9.7%, and instruction's share of General Fund spending increased from 61.62% to 64.00%. At the same time, both school administration and general administration spending declined.**
Those are facts worth including too
.
One final note from the state's own reports: districts may employ people directly **or outsource certain functions**, which can shift costs from salaries and benefits into purchased services. That means personnel figures should never be interpreted without considering how a district provides its services.
No cherry-picking the number that makes the best headline.
**The whole ledger gets a seat at Lady Budgetdown's table.** 🪶
The numbers do not tell us what to think.
**They tell us what questions to ask.**
🪶 With receipts and respect,
**Lady Budgetdown**
Croswell-Lexington Community Schools
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