New York State leads the nation in education spending—more than $33,000 per-pupil, 91 percent above the national K-12 average. Yet according to a recent survey, most parents don’t know how much the state is shelling out.
50CAN, an education-advocacy group, recently released the second edition of its report on the “State of Educational Opportunity in America.” The report contains the results of the group’s survey of 23,000 parents across 50 states.
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’s results were shocking: Forty percent of the 415 respondents were “not sure,” while 29 percent guessed “less than $5,000.” Only 1 percent guessed the range (“$35,000 to under $40,000”) that accurately characterized last year’s per-pupil average ($36,293).
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’t budged—so how could the state be leading the country in education spending?
“This disconnect between what’s spent and what people think is spent is longstanding in [New York]. The teachers’ unions and others have a self-interest in that narrative, so they can always ask for more and always blame the results on ‘scarce resources,’” Derrell Bradford, president of 50CAN, told me. “The truth is, after the pandemic, there are fewer students and more money in the system than there has ever been. It’s a shame kids aren’t getting the benefits while parents are kept in the dark about it.”
New York State has led the nation in per-pupil spending for 19 consecutive 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$38,163 per pupil, compared with $23,314 in second-place Los Angeles.
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30 October 2025 Madison School Board approves a $668,000,000 budget for 25,557 “full time equivalent” students.