Mission & Approach
We are securing the future of critical education finance datasets while modernizing the infrastructure behind them.
We provide the objective foundation necessary for effective governance, robust research, and evidence-based decision-making in public education.
Why These Data Matter
Nearly every question about how schools operate comes back to resources: where dollars come from, where they go, and how that spending is recorded.
Public data are critical for understanding how public systems work and how they change over time. Education finance data are especially foundational because nearly every question about how schools operate comes back to resources. For decades, federal education finance collections have provided a shared national record for researchers, policymakers, states, and districts.
What Limits These Data
The usefulness of these data has also been constrained by four long-standing problems: differences in state accounting and reporting practices, long publication lags, limited transparency into how data are produced, and the loss of detail that occurs when local financial records are aggregated into broader state and federal categories.
Differences in state accounting and reporting practices
Long publication lags
Limited transparency into how data are produced
Loss of detail when local financial records are aggregated into broader state and federal categories
Disruptions to federal education data capacity underscored the vulnerability of this critical public infrastructure.
SPEND’s Dual-Track Strategy
The Strategic Public Education National Data (SPEND) Initiative officially launched in March 2026 around two connected priorities: preserving and strengthening the national education finance data series the field depends on, and modernizing how education finance data are collected, standardized, and carried from local source systems into national data.
Enhance the present
SPEND improves the quality and usability of existing national education finance data, including addressing gaps in areas like pensions and long-term debt obligations.
Build the future
SPEND is piloting a new system that uses smart technology to automatically organize school spending data. This “Rosetta Stone” tool analyzes complex local financial records and classifies spending according to a single national standard.
A modernized system that improves data collections, providing better information in less time.
What SPEND Is Building
SPEND is building a standardized cross-state education finance dataset from the financial records districts already maintain. It is designed to provide a more consistent view of where education dollars come from and how districts use them. SPEND’s approach works alongside existing reporting systems, without requiring districts to change their accounting practices.
SPEND is building this resource as a public utility for education finance data.
It will be publicly available for direct use and structured so that it can also be incorporated into other data systems. The goal is to make education finance data more comparable across states and districts—and more useful for understanding how public education dollars are spent—without losing the local detail that matters.