Alzada Elem vs Ionia Township S/D #2
MT · 8 students • MI · 10 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- Ionia Township S/D #2 spends 14% more per student than Alzada Elem after adjusting for local price levels.
- Alzada Elem directs 8 more cents of every operating dollar to instruction than Ionia Township S/D #2.
- Alzada Elem reports fewer students per teacher (8.0 vs 10.0). 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.
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 8 | 10 |
| Schools | 1 | 1 |
| Grades served | PK–8 | K–5 |
| Setting | Rural | Rural |
| County | Carter County | Ionia County |
| State | MT | MI |
| Local price level (US = 100) Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 94.6 | 95.5 |
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.
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $17,545 | $20,231 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $18,538 | $21,174 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $17,578 | $18,517 |
| 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 |
Alzada Elem
Ionia Township S/D #2
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.
Alzada Elem
- Local 47.8% Locked
- State 41.1% Locked
- Federal 11.2% Locked
Ionia Township S/D #2
- Local 43.0% Locked
- State 10.6% Locked
- Federal 46.4% Locked
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 47.8% | 43.0% |
| State share of revenue | 41.1% | 10.6% |
| Federal share of revenue | 11.2% | 46.4% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How MT funds its districts
We have not yet written up MT's funding formula, so nothing is claimed here.
How MI funds its districts
Proposal A foundation allowance: a per-pupil grant largely funded by the state, with limited local enhancement.
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.
Alzada Elem
- Instruction 80.8% Locked
- Instructional staff support 0.0% Locked
- Student support 0.0% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 7.3% Locked
- Transportation 5.2% Locked
- Food service 0.0% Locked
- School administration 0.0% Locked
- District administration 3.1% Locked
- Other support 3.6% Locked
- Other current 0.0% Locked
Ionia Township S/D #2
- Instruction 70.0% Locked
- Instructional staff support 2.7% Locked
- Student support 0.4% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 7.2% Locked
- Transportation 12.5% Locked
- Food service 0.0% Locked
- School administration 0.0% Locked
- District administration 6.8% Locked
- Other support 0.4% Locked
- Other current 0.0% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, Alzada Elem minus Ionia Township S/D #2. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 80.8% | 72.6% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 3.1% | 6.8% |
| Transportation share | 5.2% | 12.5% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | 8.0 | 10.0 |
| 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.
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | 21.4% | 21.5% |
| English learners | — | — |
| Students with disabilities | — | — |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | 0.0% | +25.0% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
Alzada Elem
No stability flags raised.
Ionia Township S/D #2
- Federal cliff exposure More than 20% of revenue is federal, a share that is unusually exposed when temporary federal programmes end.
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment change, 5 years | 0.0% | +25.0% |
| Long-term debt per student | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service share of spending | Locked | Locked |
Enrolling a child
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Alzada Elem
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.
Ionia Township S/D #2
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.
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 MT and MI.
- At least one district sits outside a metro area with its own published price index, so its cost adjustment uses the statewide index. That is a coarser adjustment.
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.
Alzada Elem
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.
Ionia Township S/D #2
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.
| Alzada Elem | Ionia Township S/D #2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | $6,545 | $12,769 |
| 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. | 32.1% | 43.0% |
| 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. | $273 | $0 |
- Ionia Township S/D #2: 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
Alzada Elem
We have not read MT’s election results, so this column is empty because of us and not because of Alzada Elem. Whether it has asked its voters for money is a question its county election office can answer and we cannot, yet.
Nobody has read MT’s school election results yet — that is a gap on our side, not a fact about this district. Its county elections office holds what it asked its voters for and what they answered, and that is a public record you can request. What it says is worth asking about at a board meeting.
Ionia Township S/D #2
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.
What this band does not answer yet
The detailed figures for Alzada Elem and Ionia Township S/D #2
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
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