There were a projected 3.7 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) elementary and secondary school teachers in fall 2011. This number has risen 7 percent since 2001. The 2011 projected number of FTE teachers includes 3.3 million public school teachers and 0.4 million private school teachers.
Of the 3,380,300 full-time and part-time public school teachers who were teaching during the 2007-08 school year, 84.5 percent remained at the same school ("stayers"), 7.6 percent moved to a different school ("movers"), and 8.0 percent left the profession ("leavers") during the following year. Among the 487,300 private school teachers who were teaching during the 2007-08 school year, 79.2 percent were stayers, 4.9 percent were movers, and 15.9 percent were leavers. (source: ed.gov, http://nces.ed.gov/FastFacts/).
There are approximately 99,000 K-12 public schools and 33,000 K-12 private schools. Public schools have an estimated 6.6 billion gross sq. ft. of building space (source: 21csf.org).
There are approximately 17,000 school districts in the U.S., which mathematically translates into roughly 5.8 schools per district.
In the 2007-08 school year, there were 49.3 million public school students and about 5.1 million private school students (source: ed.gov, http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/quickfacts.asp).
In the United States, 88% of students attend public schools, compared with 9% who attend parochial schools, 1% who attend private independent schools, and 2% who are home-schooled.
