A Few Numbers For Back To School Time | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Bob Luebke, was originally published in the ARTICLE SECTION section(s) of Civitas's online edition.

    It's back to school time. While parents and children get ready for what we hope is another successful academic year, here are some interesting numbers for everyone concerned about education in North Carolina.

• 1,753,632 - Total number of K-12 students in public schools (1,459,852), charter schools (77,791), private schools (97,721)[ii] and home schools (118,268).
• 94,421 - Number of teachers employed in NC public schools in 2015-16.
• $4,345,660,313 - Amount spent in 2015 on salaries for public school classroom teachers ($3,063,177,133) and estimated matching benefits ($1,282,483,180).
• $8,733,375,580 - 2016-17 state appropriations for K-12 public schools in North Carolina.
• $5,471 - Amount state pays for health insurance for each full-time teacher.
• $8,084 - Average state retirement contribution by the state to teachers with average salary. (16.12 percent x average teacher salary of $50,150 =$8,084).
• $607.8 million - Money awarded to public schools in 2015-16 from proceeds from the NC Education Lottery.
• 181,063 - Number of government employees working in public schools. Includes state-funded (139,235), federally funded employees (12,988) and local-funded employees (28,840).
• $478,843,563 - Cost to North Carolina to transport nearly 900,000 students daily on 13,300 buses (2014-15).
• 7,701 - Number of full-time personnel who teach and work in North Carolina's 159 charter schools.

    Best wishes for a successful school year to everyone teaching, working in or studying in North Carolina schools!