Statewide Fiscal Trend
Where Arkansas's school-funding dollars go, and why the total keeps rising.
Arkansas's schools are funded from three sources: the state, local property taxes, and the federal government. The chart below shows the whole picture from audited district revenue reports (ASR) — with the local share split into the required 25-mill URT that sits inside the state foundation formula and the additional local revenue districts raise beyond it. Audited totals run through 2024–25; 2025–26 revenue isn't audited yet.
Within that picture, the state's slice is distributed to districts through foundation funding — a per-student amount — plus a set of categorical programs. The next chart breaks the state total into its largest pieces, for every year from 2018–19 through 2025–26. 2025–26 is preliminary.
Foundation funding is by far the largest piece. It equals a per-student rate times each district's enrollment — but the enrollment it pays on is the prior year's, carried forward. Statewide, that lag means the funding basis and current enrollment rarely match: in 2025–26 the state funds about 9,200 more students than are enrolled, a cushion for districts whose enrollment fell.
The total can also move for a second reason: the state raising the rate. The next chart separates rate from enrollment, each indexed to 2019–20 = 100.