HOW RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL FINANCES COMPARE
WITH MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT On Tuesday, July 26, 2005, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) released its 2005 edition, How Rhode Island Schools Compare. Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut have much in common when it comes to how they finance public education. All three states rank in the top ten for per student expenditures, average teacher salaries and dependence on the property tax to fund education. When comparing Rhode Island with Connecticut and Massachusetts as well as the United States average, the report shows that Rhode Island as well as its neighboring states make a continuing strong effort to finance public education. Specifically, the data reveal that: - Connecticut ranks second highest ($11,893 per pupil) in estimated per pupil expenditures in 2004-05, followed by Massachusetts ($11,322 per pupil) and Rhode Island ($10,641 per pupil), which rank fifth and seventh highest respectively;
- Over the past decade, the Ocean State's growth in estimated per student expenditures approximated the national average, growing on average by 4.6 percent annually between 1994-95 and 2004-05. During the same time period, Connecticut's per student expenditures grew annually by 3.8 percent and Massachusetts' per pupil expenditures by 5.5 percent. Nationally, per pupil expenditures grew by 4.5 percent;
- Rhode Island's 2004-05 expenditures per student were 24.4 percent higher than the national average of ($8,554);
- Rankings for estimated average teacher salaries in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts remain relatively unchanged in 2004-05 when compared to 1994-95. All three states rank among the top ten in the country. Connecticut ranks highest in the country with an average teacher salary of $58,688 in 2004-05, followed by Massachusetts ($54,596) and Rhode Island ($53,473), ranking seventh and eighth highest within the nation in 2004-05;
- Rhode Island's teacher salaries increased on average annually by 2.8 percent from 1994-95 to 2004-05, reflecting the United States average of 2.7 percent. During this period, salaries in Rhode Island increased at a significantly higher rate than in Connecticut, which is estimated to increase its average teacher salaries annually by 1.6 percent between 1994-95 and 2004-05.
- Massachusetts' average salaries are estimated to increase by 3.0 percent between 1995 and 2005, the highest increase among these three states;
- There were not significant differences in the share of education funded by state and local governments in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The state's share of funding in Rhode Island was 36.7 percent in 2004-05, compared to 39.2 percent in Connecticut and 38.5 percent in Massachusetts;
- The local share of public education funding is consistently higher in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts than in other regions of the country, ranking Rhode Island third highest in the country (behind Illinois and Nevada) with 59.9 percent of the funding coming from local governments. Massachusetts ranks eighth highest (54.9 percent) and Connecticut ninth highest (54.8 percent) within the United States in 2004-05. The national average is 42.7 percent;
Note: The estimates come primarily from the National Education Association's report "Rankings of the States 2004 and Estimates of School Statistics 2005", published in June 2005. All of these figures are unadjusted (i.e., expressed in current dollars) and do not take into account inflation.
| 
