Alabama is home to 565 public high schools, each ranging from under 400 students to almost 3,000.
Public schools are governed by school systems that typically correspond to a county or municipality. These systems can receive funding from different sources, including federal, state and local governments, as well as endowments.
Some public school districts may receive funding from property taxes. These taxes are measured by millage rates, meaning the number of dollars taxed per $1,000 of property's assessed taxable value.
Counties and special school tax districts can impose property taxes if approved by voters in a referendum.
Every year, U.S. News releases a ranking of Alabama's high schools. We used this ranking to select the schools on this list. We did not include charter or magnet schools for the sake of avoiding confusion.
We used data from the U.S. Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to determine the per pupil expenditure of each high school. This number is calculated by dividing the total spending for a particular school by the number of students at that school.
Next, we used the Alabama Department of Revenue data to determine the total school millage rate for the respective school district.
By dividing the per pupil expenditure of each high school by the total school millage of its respective district, we calculated roughly the dollar spent on each student per mill.
Mountain Brook High School
Location: Mountain Brook
School District: Mountain Brook School System
Graduation Rate: 97%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,043
Per pupil expenditure: $16,839
Total school millage: 34.1
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $593.81
Vestavia Hills High School
Location: Vestavia Hills
School District: Vestavia Hills City Schools
Graduation Rate: 96%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,514
Per pupil expenditure: $12,105
Total school millage: 15.1
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $801.66
Homewood High School
Location: Homewood
School District: Homewood City School District
Graduation Rate: 94%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,223
Per pupil expenditure: $14,426
Total school millage: 15.1
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $955.36
Bob Jones High School
Location: Madison
School District: Madison City Schools
Graduation Rate: 97%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,880
Per pupil expenditure: $9,356
Total school millage: 5.5
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $1,701.09
James Clemens High School
Location: Madison
School District: Madison City Schools
Graduation Rate: 95%
Enrollment 9-12: 2,152
Per pupil expenditure: $9,387
Total school millage: 5.5
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $1,706.73
Spain Park High School
Location: Hoover
School District: Hoover City School District
Graduation Rate: 97%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,634
Per pupil expenditure: $13,243
Total school millage: 22
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $601.95
Oak Mountain High School
Location: Shelby County
School District: Shelby County Schools
Graduation Rate: 97%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,531
Per pupil expenditure: $9,326
Total school millage: 30
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $310.87
Fairhope High School
City: Fairhope
School District: Baldwin County Public Schools
Graduation Rate: 91%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,403
Per pupil expenditure: $8,721
Total school millage: 15
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $581.40
Arab High School
City: Arab
School District: Arab City School District
Graduation Rate: 99%
Enrollment 9-12: 758
Per pupil expenditure: $10,984
Total school millage: 4
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $2,746
Hartselle High School
City: Hartselle
School District: Hartselle City School District
Graduation Rate: 97%
Enrollment 9-12: 1,066
Per pupil expenditure: $10,312
Total school millage: 17.1
Dollar spent on each student per mill: $603.04
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email will.blakely@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.
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