General administration is the off-site bureaucracy at district, county, state and federal levels. School administration includes principals, vice principals and other on-site administrators. Operation and maintenance are costs associated with the buildings and structures. Student transportation is self-explanatory. Student support services is a category for miscellaneous expenditures for various special programs.
Food services includes the cost of providing breakfasts, lunches and snacks to students.
Enterprise operations include the cost of operating school bookstores or computer centers. The U.S. Department of Education breaks down the spending percentages in each category for us, as shown in Table 3. The numbers are for the entire United States for the 1994-95 school year. That is, wealthy and poor school districts allocate their funds in approximately these same percentages no matter where they are located. That is a satisfactory response for most school officials, but it doesn't go far enough.