The start of the new school year is just around the corner. Funding for education is a key issue this budget year, since budget cuts at all levels of government threaten funding for public schools.

Did you know that public schools are funded with a combination of state, local, and federal sources? This graph shows how each of these sources contributed to overall funding for Dade district, Florida, between 2000 and 2008. As state and local sources ebbed and flowed, the federal share remained roughly constant. Click here to see the numbers for your own district, or check out other great numbers available in the Federal Priorities Database.

 Max Edouard-Mondesir is a summer research associate at National Priorities Project. He hails from Haiti and holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.