Pass-through Funds: artificially inflate per student spending?

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0013189X221133396

I have been wondering about how pass-through funds might affect a school district’s per-student spending numbers. This question has been asked before and it has been found to have affected per-student spending numbers in some places.

I wanted to share this with others who may not have thought much about it before and I am also wondering if other pass-through funding types might possibly artificially inflate spending numbers in schools too, potentially.

So in my kids’ school district, we use a bus transportation company. Prices went up considerably last year and we say a line item increase by millions of dollars. So I asked when that would be reinbursed and if it was already included in the budget. They said it basically came in through the state funding, not as a separate revenue line.

So this has led me to wonder if that might make it look like state revenue and district spending is higher than what it really is. Any school budget aficionados out there?

I included a link to a paper that discusses this in relation to charter schools.

Submitted August 16, 2025 at 09:07AM by Both_Blueberry5176 https://ift.tt/gafuQ4j