{"id":144809,"date":"2026-02-25T14:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/144809\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T14:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:22:14","slug":"new-yorkers-dont-know-how-much-they-spend-on-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/144809\/","title":{"rendered":"New Yorkers Don\u2019t Know How Much They Spend on Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York State leads the nation in education spending\u2014more than $33,000<\/a> per-pupil, 91 percent above<\/a> the national K-12 average. Yet according to a recent survey, most parents don\u2019t know how much the state is shelling out.<\/p>\n

50CAN, an education-advocacy group, recently released the second edition of its report<\/a> on the \u201cState of Educational Opportunity in America.\u201d The report contains the results of the group\u2019s survey of 23,000 parents across 50 states.<\/p>\n

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One question, which did not make the final report, asked parents to estimate how much is spent on each student in their state. New York\u2019s results were shocking: Forty percent of the 415 respondents<\/a> were \u201cnot sure,\u201d while 29 percent guessed \u201cless than $5,000.\u201d Only 1 percent guessed the range (\u201c$35,000 to under $40,000\u201d) that accurately characterized last year\u2019s per-pupil average ($36,293<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Why such a drastic underestimate? One possible explanation is the combination of declining student enrollment and a lack of clear academic improvements. Schools keep shrinking, and student performance hasn\u2019t budged\u2014so how could the state be leading the country in education spending?<\/p>\n

\u201cThis disconnect between what\u2019s spent and what people think is spent is longstanding in [New York]. The teachers\u2019 unions and others have a self-interest in that narrative, so they can always ask for more and always blame the results on \u2018scarce resources,\u2019\u201d Derrell Bradford, president of 50CAN, told me. \u201cThe truth is, after the pandemic, there are fewer students and more money in the system than there has ever been. It\u2019s a shame kids aren\u2019t getting the benefits while parents are kept in the dark about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York State has led the nation in per-pupil spending for 19 consecutive<\/a> years. And no other large urban district spends nearly as much per student as New York City. In fiscal year 2022, for example, Gotham spent<\/a> $38,163 per pupil, compared with $23,314 in second-place Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Despite these massive expenses, New York State posts middling academic outcomes. The state\u2019s fourth- and eighth-graders are of merely average proficiency in reading, per the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and are slightly below average in math.<\/p>\n

How can elected officials justify increasing education spending amid declining enrollment<\/a> and stagnant academic results? The question is particularly pressing as Mayor Zohran Mamdani urges Governor Kathy Hochul to raise taxes\u2014in part to fund the city\u2019s broken education system. If she doesn\u2019t, the mayor has proposed a 9.5 percent property tax increase to bankroll his proposed<\/a> $127 billion budget, which would direct $38 billion to the city\u2019s Department of Education.<\/p>\n

Governor Hochul faces a critical question: What do New Yorkers receive for nearly $40 billion<\/a> in state education funding? Why do our students perform at or below their peers in other states despite this massive price tag?<\/p>\n

The 50CAN survey highlights the need for a comprehensive public awareness campaign. Parents and taxpayers must understand that New York\u2019s education system imposes record-high costs, often fails to teach basic reading and math effectively, and yet somehow requires tax hikes to sustain. They should know that New York spends an average of $36,293 per child and ranks #1 in education spending, but that it lags in academic outcomes.<\/p>\n

A better-informed public is the first step toward what New York needs to do most\u2014elect politicians who will change course.<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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City Journal is a publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a leading free-market think tank. Are you interested in supporting the magazine? As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of MI and City Journal are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (EIN #13-2912529).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York State leads the nation in education spending\u2014more than $33,000 per-pupil, 91 percent above the national K-12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-144809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}