New York’s schools are spending more than ever, but student performance keeps falling. The latest disappointing results showing declining reading skills are not an isolated setback, but part of a longer pattern.

For the past decade, New York’s fourth- and eighth-grade students’ performance in math and reading has been declining. Between 2013 and 2024, New York’s fourth-grade mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) fell from 240 to 234, while the reading scores declined from 224 to 215.

To be fair, student performance declined nationwide, and COVID made the problem worse. But two things stand out. First, New York’s decline began before COVID. Second, New York’s drop among fourth graders was larger than the national average.

Most importantly, this disturbing data about New York’s decline comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, an outside source, not from New York’s own education establishment.

Meanwhile, the New York State Education Department has been touting progress, not decline. “Students Make Progress Statewide,” declared its 2014 headline. “Students Demonstrate Proficiency Increases,” announced the 2017 press release. NYSED reported that 2018 results were better than 2017, and that 2019 outperformed 2018. Similarly, it showed 2025 results were better than those in 2024. Only the latest data release acknowledged that the picture may not be so rosy.

Whatever caused that decline, it was not a lack of money.

Between 2013 and 2024, New York increased per-pupil spending from $19,500 to $32,000. The U.S. average went from $10,700 to $15,600.

Over the past decade, the average teacher salary in New York rose from $75,000 to $92,000, and the average educator pay is approaching $100,000. New York’s teachers enjoy the highest salaries in the country, earning a third more than their colleagues nationwide.

Furthermore, while teacher salaries went up, class sizes went down. Back in 2013, New York had 13 students per teacher; now it has 11.5 students, compared with 15.4 in the U.S.

If we compare New York directly with other states, the contrast is even starker.

Florida spends $14,000 per student, less than half of New York’s level, yet outshines New York in fourth-grade mathematics and reading. Massachusetts tops the charts on educational achievement and spends considerably less.

Mississippi spends $12,000 yet outperforms New York in fourth-grade mathematics and reading. At the same time, teachers in Mississippi deal with larger class sizes and earn only half of what New York’s teachers make.

Also, New York is one of the richest states in the country, while Mississippi is the poorest. The average wage is $82,000 in New York and $50,000 in Mississippi combined with high poverty rates. If any state could be excused for difficult socioeconomic circumstances, it’s Mississippi, not New York.

New York’s taxpayers are right to ask why $90 billion spent on education — enough to run a midsize country — has not delivered excellence. Sadly, I suspect the education establishment will find a way to blame taxpayers and parents.

Unsurprisingly, Empire Center’s latest opinion poll shows more than 90% of New Yorkers are unhappy with how education is run. They want better results, less spending, and more choice — something that New York’s educational establishment has resisted for decades.

Here is an out-of-the-box idea: for $37,000 — what educating a single kid in New York’s public schools will cost in 2026-27 — we could send each young New Yorker to a boarding school in Europe.

Sure, this sounds insane, but the real insanity is how much New York mismanages its education system and how little attention the problem receives in Albany.

Silenas is the president of the Empire Center for Public Policy.