Dearest reader,

Sometimes a breadcrumb arrives with an answer already attached to it. I prefer to remove the answer and keep the breadcrumb.

A recent article pointed to a striking fact: Michigan has fewer students than it once did, while public schools employ more people overall. Fair enough.

But that left me with a much simpler question:

What actually happened to students, teachers, central administration, and the dollars spent on them?

So I opened the ledger.

I went back nearly two decades and compared Michigan's public schools using state financial records, MDE data, federal NCES staffing data, and inflation.

And the receipts did not tell a simple story.

From 2005-06 to 2023-24:

Michigan public-school enrollment fell approximately 19.2%.

The comparable federal teacher staffing count fell approximately 14.0%.

But the federal count of district/central administrators increased approximately 77.9%.

That certainly caught my attention. So I kept going.

In 2005-06, Michigan's average teacher salary was $54,739.

By 2023-24, it was $69,068.

On paper, that looks like a 26.2% increase.

Unfortunately, inflation was not sitting politely in the corner sipping tea.

Once inflation is accounted for, that 2005 teacher salary would need to be roughly $85,400 in 2023 just to have the same purchasing power.

The actual average was $69,068.

In real terms, Michigan's average teacher salary lost approximately 19.1% of its purchasing power.

Then I turned the spectacles toward General Administration.

Statewide General Administration salary spending increased from approximately $115.8 million in 2005-06 to $161.6 million in 2023-24.

Nominally, that is an increase of about 39.6%.

After inflation?

It actually DECREASED approximately 10.6%.

That receipt matters.

Because if I stopped with the 77.9% increase in district/central administrators, it would be very easy to tell readers that administrative salaries exploded while teachers were left behind.

The receipts do not establish that.

But there is one more line in the ledger.

TOTAL General Administration spending increased from approximately $311.8 million to $551.2 million.

That is a nominal increase of approximately 76.8%.

And unlike administrative salary spending, total General Administration spending DID beat inflation.

By approximately 13.3%.

So here is what the ledger actually shows:

Students: ↓ 19.2%

Teachers: ↓ approximately 14.0%

District/Central Administrators: ↑ approximately 77.9%

Average Teacher Salary Purchasing Power: ↓ approximately 19.1%

General Administration Salary Spending, after inflation: ↓ approximately 10.6%

TOTAL General Administration Spending, after inflation: ↑ approximately 13.3%

Well.

That is considerably more interesting than the breadcrumb I started with.

Michigan lost nearly one-fifth of its public-school students.

Its teacher workforce declined much less than enrollment.

Its count of district-level administrators increased substantially.

Teachers lost considerable purchasing power.

But administrative salary spending itself did NOT outpace inflation.

Total General Administration spending did.

Which leaves me with a question rather than a conclusion:

If administrative salary spending did not outpace inflation, but total General Administration spending did...

Where did the additional administrative dollars go?

That is what happens when we let the receipts lead.

Sometimes they confirm the premise.

Sometimes they complicate it.

And sometimes they point somewhere entirely different.

Receipts aren't very useful if we only keep the convenient ones.

— Lady Budgetdown

Sources:
Michigan Department of Education — Bulletin 1011 / Bulletin 1014, statewide pupil counts, average teacher salary, and financial expenditure data
Michigan Department of Education / CEPI — Financial Information Database (FID), General Administration expenditures and salary expenditures
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Common Core of Data — State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education, teacher and district/central administrator staffing
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), inflation adjustment

#LadyBudgetdown #WithReceiptsAndRespect #MichiganSchools #MichiganEducation #SchoolFinance #TeacherPay #PublicEducation #EducationSpending #FollowTheReceipts #TheLedger