📜 THE NOVI LEDGER CHART #4
Darling, Chart #3 showed us something important: Novi's overall General Fund spending per pupil increased 19.3% from 2021 to 2025, but after accounting for approximately 18.7% cumulative inflation, the real increase was only about 0.5%.
But, it is STILL AN INCREASE.
But an overall number can hide quite a bit.
So now we're opening the ledger a little wider and asking:
Which spending categories actually grew after inflation? 👑
Using Michigan's Bulletin 1014 per-pupil figures, the inflation-adjusted changes from 2021 to 2025 were:
Basic Instruction: ~0.0%
Instruction Salaries: +2.0%
Total Instruction: +3.8%
Total Supporting Services: +14.1%
Administration: +19.8%
Added-Needs Instruction: +20.8%
Instructional Support: +22.9%
That means Basic Instruction spending per pupil was essentially unchanged in real terms over the period.
Meanwhile, several other categories experienced double-digit growth even after inflation, including Total Supporting Services, Administration, Added-Needs Instruction, and Instructional Support.
Now, a very important distinction:
This does not prove that Novi "shifted money away from classrooms." The records don't establish that, so Lady Budgetdown isn't going to say it.
What the records do establish is that these categories did not grow at the same rate. And that's exactly why looking only at total spending doesn't tell the whole story.
Chart #5 will take us one step further and look at what some of that support-side spending actually represents.
Because numbers deserve context, not conclusions looking for numbers. 👑🪶
Source: Michigan Department of Education, Bulletin 1014, Novi Community School District (63100), by expenditure function; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U annual-average rates.
With receipts and respect.
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