Arlington County Public Schools vs Santa Clara Unified
VA · 27,950 students • CA · 14,448 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- Santa Clara Unified spends 15% more per student than Arlington County Public Schools after adjusting for local price levels.
- Both direct a similar share of each operating dollar to classrooms.
- Arlington County Public Schools reports fewer students per teacher (12.8 vs 19.0). This is a staffing ratio, not an average class size.
Are these even comparable?
Establish the shape of each district before reading a single dollar figure.
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 27,950 | 14,448 |
| Schools | 42 | 30 |
| Grades served | PK–12 | K–12 |
| Setting | City | City |
| County | Arlington County | Santa Clara County |
| State | VA | CA |
| Local price level (US = 100) BEA Regional Price Parity. Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 108.9 | 110.4 |
The headline dollar
Current operating spending per student, shown three ways. The first is what each district reports. The second and third are the honest ones for comparison.
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $25,095 | $29,271 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $23,048 | $26,508 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $22,371 | $26,009 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land, reported separately and never folded into the operating figures above. It is lumpy: a district mid-build looks expensive for two years. | Locked | Locked |
Arlington County Public Schools
Santa Clara Unified
Where the money comes from
The funding mix determines how exposed a district is to local property values, to state politics, and to federal programmes ending.
Arlington County Public Schools
- Local 82.6% Locked
- State 13.8% Locked
- Federal 3.6% Locked
Santa Clara Unified
- Local 84.6% Locked
- State 12.9% Locked
- Federal 2.6% Locked
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 82.6% | 84.6% |
| State share of revenue | 13.8% | 12.9% |
| Federal share of revenue | 3.6% | 2.6% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How VA funds its districts
Standards of Quality (SOQ) with the Local Composite Index: the state sets a required staffing and programme basket, then splits its cost with the locality by measured local wealth.
How CA funds its districts
LCFF — Local Control Funding Formula: a base grant per pupil plus supplemental and concentration grants driven by low-income, English-learner and foster-youth counts.
Where the money goes
The same slices in the same order for both districts, plus the differences by function — because two pie charts side by side hide exactly the thing you want to see.
Arlington County Public Schools
- Instruction 54.0% Locked
- Instructional staff support 13.8% Locked
- Student support 6.9% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 7.6% Locked
- Transportation 2.9% Locked
- Food service 2.4% Locked
- School administration 5.1% Locked
- District administration 3.4% Locked
- Other support 3.9% Locked
- Other current 2.4% Locked
Santa Clara Unified
- Instruction 59.7% Locked
- Instructional staff support 7.3% Locked
- Student support 4.5% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 9.1% Locked
- Transportation 1.9% Locked
- Food service 2.5% Locked
- School administration 7.2% Locked
- District administration 1.6% Locked
- Other support 5.3% Locked
- Other current 2.6% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, Arlington County Public Schools minus Santa Clara Unified. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 67.7% | 67.0% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 8.5% | 8.8% |
| Transportation share | 2.9% | 1.9% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher This is a staffing ratio: total enrolment divided by teaching staff. It is NOT average class size, which no national source collects. Actual classes are larger than this number in every district. | 12.8 | 19.0 |
| Students per counsellor | Locked | Locked |
| Students per administrator | Locked | Locked |
| Total salaries All staff, not teachers alone. The federal survey does not separate teacher pay. | Locked | Locked |
Who they serve
The answer to "but they serve different kids" — which is usually a fair objection.
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Child poverty rate Census SAIPE estimate of children aged 5–17 in poverty within the district boundary. Used instead of free-lunch eligibility, which community eligibility has made unusable for comparison. | 7.1% | 5.7% |
| English learners | 0 | 0 |
| Students with disabilities | 0 | 0 |
| Enrolment change, 5 years | -0.7% | -5.6% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
Arlington County Public Schools
No stability flags raised.
Santa Clara Unified
- Declining enrollment Enrolment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrolment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
- High debt burden More than 10% of total spending goes to interest and debt retirement, money that cannot reach a classroom.
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrolment change, 5 years | -0.7% | -5.6% |
| Long-term debt per student | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service share of spending | Locked | Locked |
Enrolling a child
The same checklist for both districts, read off each district’s own enrolment page. Every "required" below links to the sentence it came from.
Arlington County Public Schools
Student Registration - Arlington Public Schools
Read August 23, 2026.
Santa Clara Unified
Enrollment Projections - Santa Clara Unified School District
Almost nothing could be read off this page — usually a portal that builds its content in the browser. Treat the column below as "we could not tell", and open the district's page yourself.
Registration runs through PowerSchool. Read August 23, 2026.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Arlington County Public Schools
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction, and we have read only a fraction of the ones that do. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
Santa Clara Unified
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction, and we have read only a fraction of the ones that do. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrolment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
- Required the page says so, and the sentence is quoted.
- Mentioned only it comes up, but not as a requirement — often a sentence saying the district cannot demand it.
- Not mentioned we read the page and it was not on it. That is not the same as "not required".
- Page not read we have no enrolment page for this district.
Documents to bring
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of residency | Required “Requesting Your Deed” | Not mentioned |
| Proof of age (usually a birth certificate) | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Immunisation records | Required “Immunization Requirements” | Not mentioned |
| Physical examination | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Dental, vision or hearing screening | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Tuberculosis test | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Records from the previous school | Required “Transcripts and Records Information” | Not mentioned |
| IEP or 504 plan | Required “Students with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and English Learners may be eligible for school until age 22.” | Not mentioned |
| Custody or guardianship paperwork | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Parent or guardian photo ID | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Home language survey | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Emergency contact information | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Proof of income | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Social security number Asked for by some districts. It is not required to enrol, and a school may not refuse a child who does not provide one. We list it because districts ask, not because you must answer. | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrolment process — deadlines, appointments, proof of residency — are not shown. What to bring is above, and stays free.
- A blank row means the requirement did not appear on the page we read. It does not mean the district will not ask for it — published lists are routinely incomplete, and the registrar has the final word.
- Requirements change every enrolment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrolment on your child’s immigration status: under Plyler v. Doe (1982) every child resident in the district is entitled to a free public education. If a district asks for something that would reveal status, you are not obliged to provide it.
- If your family is in temporary or shared housing, the McKinney-Vento Act lets a child enrol immediately without the residency and records documents listed here. Ask for the district’s homeless liaison by name.
Comparability notes
- Cross-state comparison. Dollars below are shown both as reported and adjusted to a common price level, because a dollar buys different amounts of teacher in VA and CA.
What these numbers are, exactly
- Finance: US Census Bureau Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33), fiscal year 2024.
- Enrolment, staffing and directory: NCES Common Core of Data via the Urban Institute Education Data Portal, 2024.
- Child poverty: Census SAIPE school-district estimates, 2024.
- Price levels: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Districts self-report to the F-33 survey. States differ in what they count as an operating expense, and several pay teacher pensions centrally so that cost never appears in a district’s books. No arithmetic fixes that; we name it instead.
- Property tax basis and borrowing: the same F-33 filing, revenue codes T06 and T02 and the long-term debt schedule (_19H, _21F, _31F, _41F).
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what a district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Arlington County Public Schools
The county or town levies it, not the district
This school system reports no property tax of its own. It is a dependent system: the county or city levies the tax and appropriates money to the schools. You still pay school property tax — the school board simply is not the body that sets it, and the appropriation is argued out at the county or city council.
Santa Clara Unified
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
| Arlington County Public Schools | Santa Clara Unified | |
|---|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | — | $24,957 |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | $22,511 | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | — | 69.2% |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024, as reported to the federal survey. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $1,142 | $10,419 |
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. The federal survey records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
Arlington County Public Schools board of education
- Miranda Turner — Chair
- Kathleen Clark — Vice Chair
- Monique "Moe" Bryant — Member
- Zuraya Tapia-Hadley — Member
- Bethany Zecher Sutton — Member
- A seat is vacant or being filled: “Coaching Vacancies”
- How long a term runs: “The Arlington School Board is composed of five members who serve overlapping four-year terms.”
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
Santa Clara Unified board of education
- Jim Canova — Board Member
- Vickie Fairchild — Board Member
- Andrew Ratermann — Board Member
- Jodi Muirhead — Board Member
- Kathy Watanable — Board Member
- Michele Ryan, Ph.D. — Board Member
- Bonnie Lieberman — Board Member
- Members are elected: “The Santa Clara Unified School District Board of Trustees is comprised of seven members who serve four-year terms and are elected by different trustee areas in the school district.”
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-25. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
What this band does not answer yet
Unlock the full comparison of Arlington County Public Schools and Santa Clara Unified
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student
- total revenue and the funding mix in dollars
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counsellor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
- the enrolment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
$19 once for this pair, or $7 a month for every district in the country.
One payment, no account to create. Buy on the web and the iPhone app unlocks with the same receipt.
Compare something else
Arlington County Public Schools on its own · Santa Clara Unified on its own