School district · Florida · LEAID 1201590
Polk
Polk is in the largest third by enrollment among comparable Florida districts (114,483 students in the NCES CCD F-33 cohort). Per-pupil spending, enrollment, and budget for Polk come from the NCES Common Core of Data F-33 finance survey (FY2023).
- $55,504
- Est. avg teacher salary
- $12,771
- Per-pupil spending
- 114,483
- Students enrolled
- 36th
- Pct. in FL
Below benchmark
Polk is in the largest third by enrollment among comparable Florida districts (114,483 students in the NCES CCD F-33 cohort). Estimated average teacher salary is $55,504, below the national average of $70,245, serving 114,483 students (NCES CCD F-33, FY2023).
- Large enrollment scale: Polk is in the largest third by enrollment among comparable Florida districts (114,483 students in the NCES CCD F-33 cohort).
- 36th percentile for Florida
- 27th percentile nationally
- 26% of spending reaches instructional salaries
- Florida ranks #39 of 49 on the salary estimate and #3 of 49 on enrollment in the same reliable-district pool.
- Polk ranks #43 of 67 Florida districts by estimated teacher salary and #49 of 67 by per-pupil spending. Monroe pay #1 at $75,623 is not Bradford spending #1 at $25,600 per pupil
- +13.7% estimated-basis panel FY2019→FY2023 (not applied to the FTE figure above)
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Instructional payroll mix vs Florida median
Among 67 Florida districts that break out F-33 program salary totals, Polk's instructional payroll puts 56.7% into regular program , 16.0 points below the state median of 72.7%. The mix below is the district's own F-33 program split against the in-state median, not a quality score.
| Program | Polk | FL median | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular program | 56.7% | 72.7% | -16.0 pp |
| Special education | 34.2% | 18.8% | +15.5 pp |
| Vocational programs | 2.3% | 3.1% | -0.8 pp |
| Other programs | 6.8% | 1.7% | +5.0 pp |
Shares are of this district's reported F-33 teacher-salary program totals (Z35–Z38), compared with the median share across 67 in-state peers with a positive program sum. NCES LEAID 1201590 · FY2023.
LEAID 1201590 · NCES CCD F-33 FY2023
Polk F-33 compensation desk
FY2023: $55,504 estimated average teacher salary · P36 in Florida · P27 nationally · 26% instructional salary share. Nearest salary peer: Hillsborough ($184est. salary).
Salary neighbourhood chart for Polk
Salary neighbourhood · Polk
Polk sits mid-pack among in-state peers; the chart brackets it between the top and bottom pay poles (NCES F-33 FY2023, not a full state reprint).
- Sumter · low pole
Sumter · low pole
$39,249 est. salary
- Hendry · near
Hendry · near
$54,508 est. salary
- Hillsborough · near
Hillsborough · near
$55,319 est. salary
- Polk · this district
Polk · this district
$55,504 est. salary
- Bay · near
Bay · near
$56,672 est. salary
- Charlotte · top pay
Charlotte · top pay
$75,270 est. salary
Appropriate use & corrections
National salary distribution for Polk
Polk's estimated salary vs. every US district
NCES F-33 estimate, reliable-salary districts only
$55,504 27th percentile higher than 27% of 10,684 US districts
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $10K-wide band; taller bars hold more US districts. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source NCES CCD F-33 Finance Survey, FY2023 · FY2023
Polk in Florida's lower-third pay band
Same 67 districts with a usable salary and a comparable per-pupil figure (NCES F-33 FY2023)
- Monroe
Monroe
$75,623 est. avg salary
- Bradford
Bradford
$58,377 est. avg salary
- Polk
Polk
$55,504 est. avg salary
What this shows Polk ranks #43 of 67 Florida districts by estimated teacher salary and #49 of 67 by per-pupil spending. Monroe pay #1 at $75,623 is not Bradford spending #1 at $25,600 per pupil
The same districts by per-pupil spending
Polk is marked; a high spending bar is not a high pay bar
- Bradford
Bradford
$25,600 per pupil
- Monroe
Monroe
$20,972 per pupil
- Polk
Polk
$12,771 per pupil
What this shows Bradford leads spending at $25,600 per pupil; Monroe leads pay.
What stands out about Polk
- Enrolment grew 8.4% here, from 105,648 students in FY2019 to 114,483 in FY2023, against a national picture where far more districts shrank than grew over the same period. Growth of this kind typically arrives before the funding that follows it, so per-pupil figures often dip while a district absorbs it.
- With 114,483 students, it is the 22nd-largest school district by enrollment among the 13,149 US districts reporting enrollment data.
- A district of this scale typically enrolls more students than several entire states' worth of smaller districts combined, which is part of why the per-pupil and per-teacher figures here should be read as an aggregate across many schools rather than a single-campus estimate.
- Its total annual revenue of $1.46B puts it among just 43 US districts operating a budget of this size or larger, out of the 13,149 districts in the NCES CCD F-33 survey, a scale that brings dedicated budget offices, multi-year capital planning, and district-wide procurement contracts that a small district's single-person business office cannot replicate.
Scale composition for Polk
Polk enrolls 114,483 students (0.25% of the 46,412,683 students across 13,149 US districts that report enrollment in the NCES CCD F-33 survey). Only 88 districts clear the 50,000-student threshold used here - sparse districts in the 500-5,000 band cannot show a national-share read of this kind because their headcount is too small for the percentage to mean anything. Total annual revenue is $1.46B, putting it among 43 districts at this budget scale or larger.
Reported teacher FTE is 5,973, about 19.2 students per teacher (mega-cohort median 16.0; denser staffing than 17 of the 87 mega-districts with a usable FTE count, rank 70th densest) . At this enrollment the ratio is an aggregate across many campuses, so a single-school class-size story is the wrong read - use it to place Polk among other large systems, not against a 1,000-student district whose FTE is a handful of classrooms.
Instructional salaries take 26% of total expenditure on a $1.46B budget . Large systems carry central offices, transportation, and facilities lines that dilute the classroom share relative to a small district whose budget is almost entirely payroll - comparing that percentage across the enrollment cliff without this scale note misreads both ends.
Nearest mega-district peers by enrollment (same 50k+ cohort):
| District | Enrollment | Est. avg salary | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia City SD · Pennsylvania | 114,779 | $74,421 | $4.53B |
| Baltimore County Public Schools · Maryland | 111,082 | $93,213 | $2.45B |
| Cypress-fairbanks ISD · Texas | 118,010 | $63,808 | $1.64B |
| Memphis-Shelby County Schools · Tennessee | 109,797 | $58,671 | $1.74B |
| Cobb County · Georgia | 106,703 | $81,518 | $1.84B |
Florida prices absorb part of this salary
- Nominal district estimate
- $55,503.801
- Florida price level
- 103.6 / 100
- National-price equivalent
- $53,556
The FY2023 salary estimate shown in the hero.
BEA all-items regional price parity; 100 is the U.S. average.
-4% versus the nominal figure.
Prices in Florida run above the national average, so this salary has roughly the buying power of the national-price equivalent above. Comparing it with a district in a cheaper state without this adjustment overstates its relative value.
Regional price parity: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2023 all-items RPP by state. The adjustment applies a statewide index to a district figure, so it captures how Florida compares nationally, not how this district compares with others in its own state. Compare every state on this basis.
How this salary figure is calculated
Full NCES reading for Polk
What the Numbers Say About Polk
Polk is a large urban school district in Florida, serving 114,483 students at an estimated per-pupil spending of $12,771. Estimated average teacher salary, derived from reported teacher salary expenditure (F-33 items Z35-Z38) divided by teacher FTE, is $55,504, placing the district in the lower-spending tier of NCES F-33 respondents. NCES LEAID 1201590 references the FY2023 Common Core of Data Local Education Agency Finance Survey.
Relative to the Florida statewide average of $57,863, teacher pay in Polk runs slightly below the state benchmark, a 4.1% gap, and below the national instructional-salary estimate of $70,245 (21.0% differential). Among enrolling districts in Florida, it pays more than 36% of them. Florida itself ranks #39 of 49 nationally on average teacher compensation, which shapes the funding ceiling districts operate under.
On the budget side, Polk reports $1462.0M in total expenditure against $1458.8M in revenue, with instructional salaries accounting for 26% of spending, a compensation-to-budget ratio that signals how much of each tax dollar reaches classroom educators. Regular-program teacher salary outlay is $187.9M, special-education teacher pay is $113.5M.
How does Polk compare?
Estimated average teacher salary versus a peer district, the Florida average, and the national average. Pick any in-state district to compare.
Polk pays -14.1% less than Miami-dade · per-pupil $12,771 vs $14,460
Derived from NCES F-33 teacher salary expenditure (Z35-Z38) and CCD Staff Universe teacher FTE (FY2023); a small minority use the documented fallback. Unreliable service entities are excluded.
Data-derived comparison paths
Find comparable Florida districts
On pay, Polk sits closest to Hillsborough; on per-pupil investment, its nearest match is St. Johns. These are not simply nearby districts: each group is selected from the same NCES FY2023 dataset using a matching salary or per-pupil-investment signal and a comparable enrollment range.
Similar estimated teacher pay
Similar per-pupil investment
Out-of-state districts near Polk's enrollment scale
Two out-of-state peer sets for Polk: closest on enrollment (114,483 students here) and closest on estimated average teacher salary ($55,504 here). Rows stay link-disjoint so each axis is a distinct neighborhood.
Similar enrollment
Nearest other districts by NCES student count (floored at ≥200).
Similar estimated salary
Nearest other districts by F-33-derived average teacher salary, distinct from the enrollment row.
Enrollment and salaries from NCES CCD F-33; estimated teacher pay can diverge widely at the same student count because of state funding, cost of living, and local bargaining.
Revenue & Expenditure
Instructional Salary by Program
The teacher salaries behind this page's average are the ones NCES reports for 4 programs in Polk: the regular program, special education, vocational programs and other programs. Every program category NCES breaks out separately carries a figure here. Together they are 88% of everything the district spends on instructional salaries; the other 12% pays instructional aides, paraprofessionals, substitutes and other instructional staff who are not counted as teachers here.
Florida Teacher Pay Overview
The highest average among comparably sized Florida districts belongs to Monroe at $75,623. Polk places 43 of 67 comparably sized districts, squarely in the middle band the state average actually represents. Because Florida prices run above the national average, this salary is worth less than the same number elsewhere; Alaska and Connecticut are the states it can be compared with directly on BEA's price parity.
View all Florida districts →Other Florida Districts
Large-district sample from 66 Florida peers with reliable NCES data; bar length shows pay magnitude within this slice.
This is a sample of 6 from 66 Florida districts with enrollment and salary data reliable enough to compare in the NCES CCD F-33 survey.
Frequently Asked Questions about Polk
What is the average teacher salary in Polk?
The average teacher salary in Polk is $55,504 (NCES CCD FY2023), from reported teacher salary expenditure (F-33 items Z35-Z38) divided by the district's reported teacher headcount (NCES CCD Staff Universe Survey).
How does Polk teacher pay compare to the Florida average?
Polk pays 4.1% less than the Florida state average of $57,863. The district's average is $55,504.
How does Polk teacher pay compare to the national average?
Polk pays 21.0% below the national average of $70,245. The district average is $55,504.
What is the per-pupil spending in Polk?
Polk spends approximately $12,771 per student annually (NCES FY2023), covering instructional salaries, support services, and administration.
What percentage of Polk's budget goes to teacher salaries?
Instructional salaries account for 26% of Polk's total expenditure of $1462.0M (NCES FY2023).
Next read for Polk
Disclaimer & data sources
Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD). Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainTeacher
| Publisher | PlainTeacher |
| Sources | Public official public datasets |