ROCHESTER COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
When more money comes in... how much reaches teacher salaries?
Earlier today, I put a question on the ledger:
When additional money reaches a Michigan school district, how much of it actually reaches classroom teachers?
It sounds like a simple question. It wasn't. So rather than speculate, I chose Rochester Community Schools as the first test district and compared the same two fiscal years I have been using throughout these ten-year reviews:
2014–15 and 2024–25.
And after spending considerably more time in Michigan school-finance spreadsheets than any respectable lady ought to admit, the ledger produced two numbers:
8¢ and 42¢.
Both are correct.
But they mean very different things. Rochester's annual all-source General Fund revenue increased from approximately $161.3 million to $231.5 million.
That's an increase of approximately:
$70.2 million
Now let's look specifically at teacher salaries. Michigan's financial data report Rochester's actual teacher-salary expenditures at approximately:
2014–15: $46.3 million
2024–25: $51.8 million
Increase:
$5.6 million
Put those two changes together, and for every additional $1 in annual General Fund revenue between those two endpoints:
About 8¢ corresponded with increased teacher-salary expenditures.
But please don't stop reading at 8¢. Because that isn't the entire instructional picture.
Schools incur substantial employee costs beyond teacher salaries. So I opened the lens to Michigan's broader instructional salaries and employee-benefits categories. Those expenditures increased by approximately:
$29.8 million
Measured against the same $70.2 million increase in annual General Fund revenue:
About 42¢ of every additional $1 corresponded with increased instructional salaries and employee benefits broadly.
And there is the distinction I think matters most:
8¢ = increased teacher salaries.
42¢ = increased instructional salaries + employee benefits broadly.
Those are not interchangeable measurements.
In fact, of the approximately $29.8 million increase in the broader instructional compensation measure, about $12.4 million was increased instructional salaries and about $17.5 million was increased instructional employee benefits. So more of that increase appeared on the benefit side than on the salary side.
There is another bit of context worth placing in the ledger.
During the same period, Michigan's staffing data report Rochester's teacher FTE declining from 666.63 to 618.18.
That's a decrease of approximately 48.45 teacher FTE, or 7.3%.
🪶 A note about how I did this
I did not use average teacher salary to calculate the 8¢.
Average salary can move for many reasons as the workforce itself changes. Instead, I used Rochester's actual reported teacher-salary expenditures in Michigan's financial data.
I also did not decide for myself which employees ought to count as teachers. I kept Michigan's classifications intact. And this is an endpoint comparison.
I am comparing Rochester's annual revenue and expenditures in 2014–15 with those reported in 2024–25 and measuring the changes between them. I am not claiming that individual dollars can literally be followed from the district's revenue ledger into a particular teacher's paycheck.
That would be a claim the records don't support, so I won't make it.
So what did the first test tell me?
It did not tell me whether Rochester teachers should be paid more.
It did not tell me whether they should be paid less.
And it did not tell me whether Rochester spent the remaining money wisely or poorly.
Those are different questions.
This test asked one:
As Rochester's annual General Fund revenue grew, how much of that growth corresponded with increased teacher salaries?
The answer:
About 8¢ of every additional $1.
Broaden the question to instructional salaries and employee benefits, and the answer becomes:
About 42¢ of every additional $1.
Same district.
Same decade.
Same additional revenue.
Two very different measurements.
And perhaps that's the most useful thing Rochester taught me:
Money reaching instruction and money reaching teacher salaries are not the same thing.
Rochester is only the test case. One district cannot tell us what happened across Michigan. But now I have a methodology.
And the ledger has plenty of room for more districts. 🪶
With receipts and respect.
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🪶 Sources & Receipts
Michigan Department of Education — Bulletin 1014, 2014–15
Used for Rochester Community Schools' 2014–15 pupil count, per-pupil financial measures, expenditures, and average teacher salary.
Michigan Department of Education — Bulletin 1014, 2024–25
Used for the corresponding 2024–25 Rochester measures and the ten-year comparison.
Michigan Department of Education — Bulletin 1011 Data Export, 2014–15
District Code 63260 — Rochester Community School District, General Fund. Used for the underlying reported revenue and expenditure data, including Teacher Salaries, Instructional Salaries, Instructional Employee Benefits, and Total Instruction.
Michigan Department of Education — Bulletin 1011 Data Export, 2024–25
District Code 63260 — Rochester Community School District, General Fund. Used for the same financial fields at the 2024–25 endpoint.
Michigan Department of Education / CEPI — Registry of Educational Personnel (REP), Fall 2014
District Code 63260. Used for the 2014–15 teacher FTE figure.
Michigan Department of Education / CEPI — Registry of Educational Personnel (REP), Fall 2024
District Code 63260. Used for the corresponding 2024–25 teacher FTE figure.
Rochester Community Schools — Financial Transparency / Budget Reporting
Used as a district-source cross-check of Rochester's financial reporting and current expenditure classifications.
Rochester Community Schools — Board of Education records, May 12, 2014
Agenda and approved minutes. Used to verify the REA Master Agreement covering the historical period and the board's approval of that agreement. The actual historical salary schedule was not available in the archived board materials, so it was not used to calculate the 8¢ or 42¢ figures.
Rochester Education Association collective bargaining materials / Rochester Community Schools employee information
Reviewed to understand the current salary-schedule structure and why average teacher salary is not an appropriate substitute for actual districtwide teacher-salary expenditures. Salary-schedule calculations were not used in the final 8¢ calculation.
Calculations: Lady Budgetdown, using the above state- and district-reported data.
Figures are rounded for readability.
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