Miami-Dade's small elementary schools spend more per student; a median-based benchmark gap totals $20 million

Thesis

Smaller schools have higher reported per-pupil spending. In 2024-25 the 26 district-run elementary schools with fewer than 300 students spent a median $16,893 per pupil at the school level, against $14,051 at schools of 500 to 749 and $11,895 at schools over 1,000. Summing each small school's spending above the mid-sized median across its own students comes to $20.5 million a year for the 6,103 students in the small schools, $3,356 per student (the simpler reading, the $2,842 gap between the two medians times the students, gives $17.3 million; the difference is the few very small schools that spend far above the median). Both figures are descriptive comparisons with a reference median, not estimates of avoidable costs or closure savings.