Jackson Public Schools vs St. James Parish
MI · 4,310 students • LA · 3,194 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- St. James Parish spends 15% more per student than Jackson Public Schools after adjusting for local price levels.
- Jackson Public Schools directs 6 more cents of every operating dollar to instruction than St. James Parish.
- St. James Parish is far more dependent on local property taxes (67% of revenue vs 28%), which ties its budget more tightly to local property values.
- St. James Parish reports fewer students per teacher (11.6 vs 16.6). 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.
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 4,310 | 3,194 |
| Schools | 13 | 6 |
| Grades served | PK–12 | PK–12 |
| Setting | City | Suburb |
| County | Jackson County | St. James Parish |
| State | MI | LA |
| Local price level (US = 100) Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 91.8 | 92.6 |
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.
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $18,407 | $21,312 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $20,056 | $23,016 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $19,007 | $21,511 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land, never folded into the operating figures above. It is lumpy: a district mid-build looks expensive for two years. | Locked | Locked |
Jackson Public Schools
St. James Parish
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.
Jackson Public Schools
- Local 28.0% Locked
- State 52.2% Locked
- Federal 19.8% Locked
St. James Parish
- Local 66.7% Locked
- State 19.2% Locked
- Federal 14.1% Locked
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 28.0% | 66.7% |
| State share of revenue | 52.2% | 19.2% |
| Federal share of revenue | 19.8% | 14.1% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How MI funds its districts
Proposal A foundation allowance: a per-pupil grant largely funded by the state, with limited local enhancement.
How LA funds its districts
We have not yet written up LA's funding formula, so nothing is claimed here.
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.
Jackson Public Schools
- Instruction 57.9% Locked
- Instructional staff support 2.7% Locked
- Student support 3.6% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 9.6% Locked
- Transportation 5.2% Locked
- Food service 6.2% Locked
- School administration 6.7% Locked
- District administration 0.9% Locked
- Other support 7.1% Locked
- Other current 6.2% Locked
St. James Parish
- Instruction 50.4% Locked
- Instructional staff support 4.7% Locked
- Student support 8.4% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 11.9% Locked
- Transportation 6.5% Locked
- Food service 4.9% Locked
- School administration 5.9% Locked
- District administration 4.1% Locked
- Other support 3.2% Locked
- Other current 4.9% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, Jackson Public Schools minus St. James Parish. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 60.6% | 55.1% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 7.6% | 9.9% |
| Transportation share | 5.2% | 6.5% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher This is a staffing ratio: total enrollment divided by teaching staff. It is NOT average class size. Actual classes are larger than this number in every district. | 16.6 | 11.6 |
| Students per counselor | Locked | Locked |
| Students per administrator | Locked | Locked |
| Total salaries All staff, not teachers alone. | Locked | Locked |
Who they serve
The answer to "but they serve different kids" — which is usually a fair objection.
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Child poverty rate Children aged 5 to 17 in poverty within the district boundary. Used instead of free-lunch eligibility, which community eligibility has made unusable for comparison. | 20.0% | 20.7% |
| English learners | — | — |
| Students with disabilities | — | — |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -7.9% | -13.3% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
Jackson Public Schools
- Declining enrollment Enrollment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrollment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
St. James Parish
- Declining enrollment Enrollment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrollment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -7.9% | -13.3% |
| Long-term debt per student | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service share of spending | Locked | Locked |
Enrolling a child
The same checklist for both districts. Every "required" below links to the sentence it came from.
St. James Parish
We have not been able to find an enrollment page for this district, so every row in its column below says so rather than guessing at it. Ask the district's registration office directly.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Jackson 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. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
St. James Parish
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. 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 enrollment 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 enrollment page for this district.
Documents to bring
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of residency | Required “Residency Verification -Two valid forms of proof of residency (refer to attached Residency Verification for acceptable items).” | Page not read |
| Proof of age (usually a birth certificate) | Required “Birth Certificate - Copy of birth certificate OR other reliable proof of identity along with Inability to Provide Birth Certificate / Student Age & Identity Fo…” | Page not read |
| Immunisation records | Required “Immunization Record - According to State law, we will need proof of all your child's immunizations.” | Page not read |
| Physical examination | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| Dental, vision or hearing screening | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| Tuberculosis test | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| Records from the previous school | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| IEP or 504 plan | Required “Special Education -if your child has received special education services, such as speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, resource room help, etc., a c…” | Page not read |
| Custody or guardianship paperwork | Required “If documents exist that include adoption certificates or legal name changes, please have custody papers.” | Page not read |
| Parent or guardian photo ID | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| Home language survey | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| Emergency contact information | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| Proof of income | Not mentioned | Page not read |
| 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 | Page not read |
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrollment 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 district’s page. 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 enrollment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrollment 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 MI and LA.
What these numbers are, exactly
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what a district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Jackson Public Schools
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.
St. James Parish
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.
| Jackson Public Schools | St. James Parish | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | $4,553 | $9,226 |
| 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. | — | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | 20.4% | 36.7% |
| 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. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $0 | $705 |
- Jackson Public Schools: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. It 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.
Funding measures on the ballot
Jackson Public Schools
This district appears in none of what we read from MI’s source in its current ballot window (2026).
What this state publishes: Michigan's Voter Information Center publishes sample ballots, not results. Every question here is the text voters were given; the Secretary of State's ballot preview records no vote counts and no outcome, so nothing on this page says whether a Michigan measure passed. The preview also carries only the elections in its current window — recent and upcoming — so a Michigan district's older bonds and millages are not here. And one precinct is read per township or city: where a township is split between school districts, a question that appeared only in another precinct of that township is not here either. A Michigan district with no rows has not necessarily left its taxpayers alone.
St. James Parish
$123.5M approved by voters across 3 measures.
| Election | Measure | Amount | Yes | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-04-30 | Operating levy · Prop. 1 collected 2023–2032giving additional support including in particular the payment of salaries and related benefits for teachers and employees, including the payment of he…giving additional support including in particular the payment of salaries and related benefits for teachers and employees, including the payment of health benefits |
— | 81.8% | Passed |
Locked 20 earlier measures in this district’s history are not shown.
From the state’s own election file. Latest election on record: 2026-06-27.
What this state publishes: School tax and bond propositions from the Secretary of State's voter portal, 1986 to date. The portal lists 318 elections back to 1982 and all of them open, but it never says which hold propositions, and 1982-85, 1988 and 1989 hold none at all — so an empty year is not evidence that nobody voted. Board recalls, term limits and reapportionment questions are on these ballots and are not published, because they are not funding measures. Twenty-five propositions belong to taxing sub-districts that cross parish lines; the portal files them under no parish and all 64 parish files deny carrying them, so they cannot be attributed to a district. A millage authorises a rate rather than a sum, so a fixed-term levy carries mills and no dollar amount.
- A vote share is not an outcome. What it takes to carry varies by state and by measure — in some states a bond needs a supermajority and a minimum turnout while a levy on the same ballot needs half, so a clear majority can still lose. Every outcome shown here is copied from the state’s own election file, and the rule that applied is stated with the coverage above. Where that file stated no outcome we show whatever count it published and no verdict, rather than working one out from the percentage — and some states publish the ballot question without ever recording a count, so a blank there is a number nobody printed.
- These are the measures a district put to its voters, not its whole tax bill. A property tax bill also carries county, city and state levies that have nothing to do with schools, and in most states a school board can issue some kinds of debt with no vote at all.
What this band does not answer yet
The detailed figures for Jackson Public Schools and St. James Parish
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 total current spending, and the funding mix in dollars (the percentage shares stay free)
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counselor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
- the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
- the full ballot history: 20 more bonds and levies, with the amounts
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Compare something else
Jackson Public Schools on its own · St. James Parish on its own