Administrative bloat in Public Schools - Mississippi numbers

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Executive Summary
Mississippi taxpayers spend more on public K-12 education than any other spending category in the state budget.1 The Mississippi Office of the State Auditor (OSA) has published multiple reports since 2019 showing how Mississippi public schools spend taxpayer money. These reports have ranged from broad evaluations of statewide education spending to detailed studies of individual school districts. Now, analysts have obtained new data to show taxpayers updated information about how their money is spent on Mississippi’s K-12 education system.

In April 2019, the Auditor’s office released a report on educational spending in Mississippi primarily using data from the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE).2 That report showed how Mississippi’s education spending over a 10-year period (2006-2016) had failed to focus spending inside classrooms where it matters most. Administrative spending went up while the number of teachers and students went down. It also showed Mississippi could have redeployed $358 million annually—enough to fund thousands of dollars per teacher in pay raises—if spending outside the classroom had been kept the same, per student, over those ten years.

Another report from the Auditor’s office, released in November 2019, compared education spending in Mississippi to that in other Southern states.3 That report showed Mississippi spent a greater percentage of its education money on administration than every other Southern state except the District of Columbia, which was included in the analysis. Since these reports were published, analysts have obtained new data and examined Mississippi’s education spending trends. This report uses data primarily from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).4 These new data show Mississippi continues to prioritize outside-the-classroom (OTC) spending—especially spending on administration—over inside-the-classroom (ITC) spending.

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