New state tool makes it easy to compare how schools around Rock Hill get and spend money
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
How much more money do Clover teachers make than Fort Mill ones? How much more do York schools spend to teach students, than Rock Hill schools? Those answers and many more are now only a few clicks of a keyboard away.
The South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office has a new online education funding dashboard. Gov. Henry McMaster joined fiscal affairs staff and state education superintendent Ellen Weaver on Wednesday to announce the new feature.
Because of it, it’s easier to compare how area school districts get and spend their money.
“The unveiling of this dashboard is an essential step in providing increased transparency and accountability into how our school districts choose to spend taxpayer dollars,” McMaster said last week.
Lack of transparency, the governor said, will cause the public to lose confidence in its local schools and school boards.
“This dashboard will provide the public with increased confidence in how our state’s school districts operate,” McMaster said.
Test score data shows York County has the state’s No. 1 performing school district.
The dashboard offers a range of data both statewide and by district. It breaks down revenue and percentages by federal, state, local, property tax and fee sources. It shows expenses by per student instruction, operations, school leadership, instructional support and other factors. Breakdowns are in both dollars and percentages.
Total budgets, average teacher salary, fund balance, student-teacher ratios, poverty figures and aid to classrooms are available in tables, charts and scatter plots. Several options let users compare districts by all that available data.
Weaver sees the dashboard as an important step forward in improving education statewide.
“This is about transparency, and I have said for a long time that the way that we build trust in public education is through transparency,” Weaver said with Wednesday’s announcement.
What does it show?
A quick, first-time use of the dashboard shows the Clover School District tops average teacher salary in the Rock Hill region at $57,436. Next are the Fort Mill School District ($55,832), York School District ($55,786), Rock Hill School District ($55,709), Lancaster County School District ($54,036) and Chester County School District ($53,415).
Fort Mill schools have the largest budget at $267.4 million, just ahead of Rock Hill schools at $265.3 million. Lancaster County is next at almost $215.9 million followed by Clover at $135.1 million, York at $83.8 million and Chester County at $81.7 million.
Yet Fort Mill spends $6,789 per student in the instruction category, well below the other York County districts ($7,588-$7,895) and the Chester County district ($7,238). Only Lancaster County spends less in that category, at $6,689 per student. Still, Lancaster County spends 4% more of its total revenue on instruction than Fort Mill.
This is where Rock Hill region high schools rank in most recent end of course testing
A revenue comparison shows part of the reason why.
Fort Mill has the lowest student poverty rate in the state, and by U.S. Census Bureau figures the lowest in a three-state region. As a result, Fort Mill only gets 7.8% of its funding from federal sources, or $1,178 per student. Lancaster County gets 17.8% of its funding from federal sources, and Chester County gets 21.9% federal.
On the other end local property tax, fees and charges make up 49.4% of Fort Mill funding, or $7,455 per student. It’s even higher in Clover at 52.6%, or $8,388 per student. Those districts are well ahead of Rock Hill (40.3%), Lancaster County (37.7%), York (36%) and Chester County (32.3%)
Fort Mill has the lowest student poverty rate in three states. Here’s how others fare
How to use the education dashboard
The online education dashboard is available on the main page at the revenue and fiscal affairs office website, rfa.sc.gov.
Click on the education funding dashboard to view it, then use tabs at the top to compare funding, quick facts, compare districts, aid to classrooms and scatter plots. Statewide data appears first. But clicking on any county or district in the state map to the left will bring up funding details for that area.
Data tables also are available by clicking on that link.
Does high growth lead to better schools? Look at Lake Wylie, Fort Mill, Indian Land
