In the 2016-17 school year, local property taxes paid for 37% of all K-12 public school funding in the United States. Between 1920 and 2017, the portion of K-12 funding provided by local governments decreased from 83% to 45%, while the portion paid by state governments rose from 16% to 47%, and the portion paid by the federal government rose from 0.3% to 8%. The primary reason for the declining share of funding provided by local governments is that state governments have paid a growing portion of the education expenses of low-income school districts in order to equalize their funding with higher-income districts. As a result, since the early 1970s, school districts with high portions of minority students have spent about the same average amount per student as districts with small portions of minority students.