$13,084 per student attending: Arizona school districts’ operational spending in 2024–25, district by district

Operational spending per student attending in 99 Arizona school districts, 2024–25: median $13,084, range $9,571 to $43,805. Every figure from Arizona Auditor General public records, with what the figure includes and leaves out.

Half of the 99 Arizona school districts that run both elementary and high school grades recorded operational spending of more than $13,084 per student attending for 2024–25, and half recorded less. That middle figure, the median, comes from the Arizona School District Spending data file published by the Arizona Auditor General. It is the most recent year DistrictFacts publishes for the state.

The lowest figure among those districts is $9,571 per student attending, at Snowflake Unified District (2,751 students enrolled, 2025–26). The highest is $43,805, at Young Elementary District (57 students enrolled, 2025–26), about 4.6 times the lowest. The middle half of districts fall between $11,659 and $16,091.

Operational spending per student, 2024–25: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest of 99 Arizona districts

Snowflake Unified District
$9,571
Queen Creek Unified District
$9,579
Safford Unified District
$9,901
Thatcher Unified District
$10,289
Sahuarita Unified District
$10,400
Kayenta Unified School District #27
$25,052
San Simon Unified District
$26,476
Peach Springs Unified District
$28,763
Bowie Unified District
$30,028
Young Elementary District
$43,805

10 of 99 districts shown: the 5 lowest and the 5 highest. Bars start at zero and the line marks the median of all 99, $13,084. Each bar links to the district’s page.

Arizona Auditor General, Arizona School District Spending data file, 2024–25

The largest district

Mesa Unified District is the largest Arizona system reporting this figure, with 52,975 students enrolled (2025–26). Its figure is $12,698 per student attending for 2024–25, 3% below the $13,084 median of the 99 districts compared here. The DistrictFacts homepage compares the same figure with a wider group: all 206 Arizona systems reporting it for the year, including the kinds of district left out here. That median is $14,049, and Mesa Unified District is 10% below it.

What “operational spending per student” means in Arizona

In Arizona the figure is the Auditor General’s operational spending per student attending, as the Auditor General computes and publishes it. The count of students attending is not the Arizona Department of Education’s (ADE) October 1 enrollment headcount shown beside the districts here. Operational spending leaves out land and buildings, equipment, interest and other nonoperational spending. The report covers school districts, not charter holders, and does not analyse accommodation or county-regional districts. They are outside this comparison, as are agencies NCES does not classify as regular school districts and districts that do not run both elementary and high school grades. ADE’s Superintendent’s Annual Financial Report and Every Student Succeeds Act figures are separate series and are not used here.

Each state defines this figure differently: what spending is counted, and which count of students it is divided by. The Arizona figure should not be set beside another state’s, and DistrictFacts does not rank states on it.

Which districts are counted

DistrictFacts publishes pages for 613 Arizona districts and other local education agencies. 206 of them report this figure for 2024–25. The median and the range above cover 99: regular school districts whose schools span both elementary and high school grades. The other 107 are left out so that different kinds of district are not mixed in one median:

Of the remaining 407, 1 has a figure only for an earlier year and 406 have no published figure for the year. For one of them, the Auditor General did not report the figure for 2024–25 (NR), with the note shown on the district’s page. A missing or not-reported figure is not counted as zero; it is left out of the median.

The source omissions include 396 charter holders outside the Auditor General’s report and 10 accommodation or county-regional districts the report does not analyse. The latter are Cochise County Accommodation School District; Coconino County Accommodation School District; Fort Huachuca Accommodation District; Gila County Regional School District; Graham County Special Services; Maricopa County Regional School District; Mary C O'Brien Accommodation District; Navajo County Accommodation District #99; Pima County Accommodation School District; Yavapai Accommodation School District.

What this does not tell you

A per-pupil figure does not show whether money was spent well, and it is not a measure of school quality. Districts differ in the students they serve, the services they must provide and their size. In a district with few students, a small change in spending or in the pupil count moves the figure a long way. This is one year of data and it says nothing about the trend. A useful question to ask a district is what is included in its figure and how it has changed over time; each district page linked here shows the detail and the source file.

This report was generated from public records by the DistrictFacts Data Desk. Every figure in it is read from the Arizona School District Spending data file of the Arizona Auditor General, as published on the district pages; none was typed by hand. The method is described on the DistrictFacts methodology page, and a correction can be requested from this story.

Sources

Browse