📜 HEMLOCK PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT: TEN YEARS IN THE NUMBERS
Dear readers, Lady Budgetdown has arrived in Hemlock, and the numbers have a rather interesting story to tell. 👀
Over the ten-year period from 2014-15 to 2024-25, pupil count remained remarkably stable, increasing just 3.45%.
The dollars, however, did considerably more traveling.
💰 All-sources revenue per pupil: +59.62%
📚 Total instruction per pupil: +32.70%
📝 Instructional support per pupil: +23.70%
🏛� Business & administration per pupil: +78.38%
🔧 Operations & maintenance per pupil: +80.24%
🍎 Average teacher salary: +0.21%
For perspective, cumulative inflation over the same comparison period was approximately 35.83%.
That means business and administration spending per pupil grew 42.55 percentage points above inflation, and operations and maintenance grew 44.41 points above inflation.
Meanwhile, average teacher salary?
35.62 percentage points below inflation.
Lady Budgetdown does not decide for you what those numbers should mean. She merely places them beside one another.
Because sometimes the most interesting part of a budget isn't simply how much more money is being spent.
It's where the increases went — and where they didn't.
📜 Source: Michigan Department of Education, Bulletin 1014 — Financial Information of Michigan School Districts.
Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.
With receipts and respect.