New York City Schools Projected to Spend $42,000 Per Student This Year
“Despite the vast sums poured into the nation’s largest school system, student proficiency in English language arts and math continues to lag behind the rest of the state and country.”
At what point do we just give this money to parents and let them decide how to spend it on their child?
The New York Post reports:
NYC DOE projected to spend $42k per student this school year — the most in the country
The city Department of Education will spend a staggering $42,168 per student this school year, budget experts project, even as enrollment declines and student achievement stalls.
The record sum is nearly $2,000 per student more than the DOE spent last year, according to the nonprofit think tank Citizens Budget Commission. Students report to class Sept. 4.
The stunning figure is 36% more than the $31,119 the city spent per pupil just five years ago.
In calculating spending per student, the CBC factors in overall costs for food, transportation, school support services, central administration, pensions, benefits and debt service.
Per-pupil costs are rising as the number of students has gone down. Last year, the city counted about 815,000 students enrolled in K-12 in DOE schools – only 0.1% less than the previous year, but around 100,000 fewer students than in the 2019-2020 school year, according to DOE statistics.
NYC spends more per pupil than any large city in the nation, with the next-most generous systems, Chicago and Philadelphia, trailing far behind.
Despite the vast sums poured into the nation’s largest school system, student proficiency in English language arts and math continues to lag behind the rest of the state and country.
The “Nation’s Report Card” released by the National Center for Education Statistics in January revealed that just 33% of Big Apple fourth graders scored proficiency in math and 28% in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress last year.
Older students’ results were worse – 23% of city eighth graders met the national standards in math and 29% in reading.
In statewide exams given last school year, 52.6% of sixth graders scored proficiency in English Language Arts — up from 45.9% last year, and 47.8% during the 2022-2023 school year, but down from 56.3% in 2021-2022. But comparisons are unreliable because the tests and standards have shifted, and the state has lowered some passing benchmarks so even small gains are inconclusive.
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Comments
who knew rubbing stamping their grades cost so much!!??
I would see this dollar amount as what it costs per student to fund teachers, staff, busses, unions, infrastructure, etc. not what is actually spent on students hoping for an education. Break out what money goes to non educational expenses such as union dues, funds diverted for illegal aliens, school police, meals, trans treatments? And on and on and you see how little gets spent on actual education activities. Or what about the so called “rubber “ rooms for teachers not allowed in classrooms but can’t be fired because of union contracts. Thats full pay and benefits not to teach. Or has this been rectified over so many years. Does the city or the union run the schools. How much tax payers money goes to the unions? The city would probably save billions of $ if it got the unions out of the schools.
exactly where is the money going?
School construction kickbacks, textbook purchase kickbacks, six figure paychecks for virtually everyone on the payroll…
Ever increasing numbers of district staffers and administrators. Well paid administrators and staffers.
“At what point do we just give this money to parents and let them decide how to spend it on their child?”
Heck with that. They don’t need no education (bomp ba bomp…). Move ’em straight into the workforce. Have the city hire the kids to pick up trash and remove graffiti, and pay it to them as a wage.
ALL of that taxpayer money should be directed outside of the anti-American democrat-run indoctrination-centers, and given to private-sector institutions, trade-schools, charter schools, and religious schools.
That “despite” is out of place. It was proven decades ago that there is no relation between the amount spent on a school system and the academic outcomes. Spending more money does not yield better education, it just spends more money. The same education can be had for a lot less money.
For instance, smaller class sizes cost money, but do not produce better outcomes. The only benefit of smaller classes is to the teacher, who has to do less work for the same money.
I’ll bet they still force teachers to forage for their school supplies.
NYC needs vouchers to really educate its youth!!!
To be fair, this $42,000 figure is reached by dividing the Board of Education’s total budget by the number of public school students. But NYC has a lot of private school students, mostly at Catholic and Jewish schools, who receive services from the Board of Ed but don’t count in the divisor. The Board provides private schools students with transportation, lunch, textbooks, special ed teachers, computer resources, and more. Which is still a lot cheaper than having those kids in the public schools.