Federal Funding Share by State (NCES F-33)
Nationwide, about 14.1% of district revenue comes from federal sources, but the share ranges from 22.7% in Mississippi to 6.7% in Vermont. PlainSchools ranks all 51 reporting state systems, drawn from the federal F-33 School District Finance Survey.
Research period:
Key finding
Across the 48,254,214 public-school students in districts reporting to the F-33 survey, roughly 14.1% of district revenue comes from federal sources in a single year.
Reliance is highest in Mississippi, at 22.7% of district revenue, and lowest in Vermont, at 6.7%. A high federal share usually reflects a larger concentration of Title I-eligible or rural students, not a judgment on state effort.
Research question
Public school districts draw revenue from local, state, and federal sources, and how much they rely on Washington varies sharply by state. Across the 51 state systems with enough reporting students, what share of district revenue is federal, and where is the reliance highest and lowest?
Methodology
For each state, the figure is the enrollment-weighted average share of district revenue reported as federal, drawn from the U.S. Department of Education's F-33 School District Finance Survey for FY2021-22. Weighting by district enrollment means large districts influence the state average proportionally to how many students they serve; a state needs at least 20,000 reporting students to be ranked so a handful of tiny districts cannot distort it.
This is a share of REVENUE, not a share of enrollment or a dollar figure: a district can have a high federal share and still spend less in absolute federal dollars per pupil than one with a lower share but far more students. Figures are recomputed live from the database on every request, so nothing here is hand-entered.
See the methodology page for source vintage and full details.
States most reliant on federal school funding
Top 10 by federal revenue share (NCES F-33, FY2021-22)
All 51 state systems, ranked
Federal revenue share, highest first. Every state links to its full profile; figures update with each F-33 release.
| # | State | Federal revenue share | Districts reporting | Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 22.7% | 146 | 439,755 |
| 2 | Arkansas | 19.7% | 255 | 492,684 |
| 3 | Kentucky | 19.6% | 171 | 659,152 |
| 4 | North Carolina | 19.6% | 308 | 1,527,004 |
| 5 | Montana | 19.4% | 394 | 149,967 |
| 6 | South Dakota | 19.3% | 149 | 141,357 |
| 7 | Louisiana | 19.1% | 189 | 717,492 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 19.0% | 142 | 998,836 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 18.7% | 540 | 700,957 |
| 10 | Alaska | 18.5% | 54 | 130,723 |
| 11 | West Virginia | 18.3% | 57 | 249,982 |
| 12 | Arizona | 18.1% | 626 | 1,123,525 |
| 13 | Idaho | 18.1% | 176 | 316,414 |
| 14 | Florida | 17.8% | 66 | 2,840,624 |
| 15 | Alabama | 17.2% | 147 | 749,525 |
| 16 | Texas | 17.2% | 1,200 | 5,515,549 |
| 17 | New Mexico | 17.0% | 143 | 313,174 |
| 18 | Nevada | 16.0% | 18 | 489,363 |
| 19 | North Dakota | 15.9% | 168 | 118,472 |
| 20 | Georgia | 15.6% | 220 | 1,749,410 |
| 21 | Missouri | 15.1% | 553 | 890,915 |
| 22 | South Carolina | 14.9% | 74 | 779,335 |
| 23 | Hawaii | 14.5% | 1 | 170,209 |
| 24 | Ohio | 14.1% | 979 | 1,677,619 |
| 25 | Michigan | 13.2% | 877 | 1,432,331 |
| 26 | District of Columbia | 13.1% | 63 | 92,319 |
| 27 | Delaware | 12.9% | 42 | 141,465 |
| 28 | Wyoming | 12.8% | 48 | 92,380 |
| 29 | Utah | 12.5% | 155 | 691,619 |
| 30 | California | 12.3% | 1,898 | 5,755,924 |
| 31 | Indiana | 12.2% | 404 | 1,034,403 |
| 32 | Virginia | 12.1% | 131 | 1,260,290 |
| 33 | Washington | 12.0% | 317 | 1,089,238 |
| 34 | Nebraska | 11.7% | 246 | 328,925 |
| 35 | Rhode Island | 11.6% | 62 | 137,294 |
| 36 | Maryland | 11.5% | 24 | 889,557 |
| 37 | Iowa | 11.4% | 327 | 511,211 |
| 38 | Minnesota | 11.3% | 537 | 869,564 |
| 39 | New York | 10.9% | 682 | 1,509,101 |
| 40 | Wisconsin | 10.9% | 421 | 811,661 |
| 41 | Oregon | 10.8% | 196 | 548,787 |
| 42 | Illinois | 10.7% | 848 | 1,843,971 |
| 43 | Pennsylvania | 10.5% | 759 | 1,687,916 |
| 44 | Colorado | 10.3% | 184 | 870,705 |
| 45 | Maine | 10.0% | 219 | 173,688 |
| 46 | Massachusetts | 9.7% | 396 | 923,249 |
| 47 | Kansas | 9.1% | 288 | 487,881 |
| 48 | New Hampshire | 8.9% | 162 | 158,759 |
| 49 | Connecticut | 8.7% | 198 | 513,315 |
| 50 | New Jersey | 7.4% | 650 | 1,383,325 |
| 51 | Vermont | 6.7% | 83 | 73,293 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, FY2021-22. Revenue-mix figures are self-reported by districts to state education agencies. U.S. Department of Education, NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, FY2021-22. Revenue-mix figures are self-reported by districts to state education agencies.
What the data shows
Federal reliance tracks need, not spending power
Mississippi draws roughly 3.4 times the federal revenue share of Vermont. Federal K-12 funding (Title I, IDEA, and related programs) is largely allocated by formula toward low-income and rural districts, so a high federal share is more a marker of student need than of a state under-investing in its own schools.
A revenue share is a starting question, not a verdict
A high federal share does not mean a state's schools are better or worse funded overall; states with wealthy local tax bases can post low federal shares while still spending generously per pupil from local and state sources, and the reverse is also true. Read this alongside the per-pupil spending analysis to see the full funding picture, not the federal share in isolation.
What this figure does and does not cover
This figure is an enrollment-weighted average revenue-mix share for FY2021-22, a year with elevated federal shares nationwide from pandemic-era ESSER relief funds still being spent down. It does not report absolute dollar amounts, does not break the figure down by district poverty level, and does not capture how federal funds are actually spent once received. It is best read together with the per-pupil spending and school poverty analyses on this site.
What this analysis cannot tell us
This is the enrollment-weighted average share of district revenue reported as federal in the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey for FY2021-22, a year when COVID-relief (ESSER) funds were still being spent down, so federal shares run higher than a typical pre-pandemic year. A high federal share is not a judgment on a state's own effort: it commonly reflects a larger concentration of Title I-eligible, low-income, or rural students, whose federal formula funding is need-based by design. Conversely, a low federal share often reflects a wealthier local tax base able to fund schools with less need for federal support, not necessarily better-funded schools overall. The figure is a revenue-mix share, not a dollar amount, so a state can have a high federal SHARE while still spending less per pupil in absolute federal dollars than a state with a lower share and larger enrollment. This page reports the overall state average only and does not break the figure down by district poverty level.
States least reliant on federal school funding
The 10 states with the lowest federal revenue share (NCES F-33, FY2021-22)
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, FY2021-22: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/f33agency.asp
Cite this analysis
PlainSchools. (2026). Federal Funding Share by State (NCES F-33). https://plainschools.com/research/federal-funding-share-by-state/