New York Spends More Per Student Than Any State, Yet Achievement Gaps Between Student Groups Remain Stark
A Paradox in New York Education: High Spending, Persistent Inequality
New York State presents an education paradox: New York spent $29,873 per student in 2021-22 (the most recent year for which national data is available), 91 percent more than the national average of $15,633. Yet student achievement gaps remain among the nation’s most stark. New York spent between 9 percent and 170 percent more than neighboring and competitor states, and in school year 2020-21, the State used $1.1 billion in extraordinary federal aid from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to offset planned State school aid. The question becomes: where is the investment translating to results?
Pandemic-Era Learning Loss and Racial Disparities
The pandemic devastated academic progress, with particular harm to students already facing inequities. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in NYC (like many other places across the country) have struggled to reestablish consistent attendance patterns, with pronounced inequities by race and class. Recent national data show student performance dropped significantly in 2022 from 2019, with New York experiencing even greater declines than the nation in fourth grade math and reading, with New York’s largest drops in fourth grade math showing declines in average test scores that were double any other drops in the past 20 years.
Current Performance Gaps by Demographics
The size of attendance and achievement gaps by race and class suggests that improving attendance rates, particularly for Black, Latinx and low-income students, should be central to the City’s education policy agenda. This assessment is not aspirational rhetoric but data-driven observation.
Advanced Coursework Access Remains Unequal
Opportunity gaps begin early in students’ educational trajectories. Attending a school with a principal of color has positive impacts on academic outcomes for students of color, yet school leader diversity statewide reveals that more than half of students attend schools without any leader of color. Additionally, if students are equitably enrolled in advanced courses, representation should be approximately equal across racial/ethnic groups–but substantial disparities persist.
A State of Emergency Response Emerging
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results underscore the need for school districts to swiftly invest significant resources in helping students that are most in need to make up for learning loss, while pandemic relief funds for education are still available. The urgency reflects genuine crisis: federal relief funding expires in September 2024, limiting the window for strategic intervention.
Policy Questions and Forward Path
EdTrust-New York’s 2026 policy agenda is premised on the belief that all children can succeed in school when provided with high-quality, culturally relevant instruction and support that is equity-driven, data-centered, and student-focused. The question is whether New York’s substantial resources can be reallocated toward this goal. The paradox remains: spending alone has not solved inequality, suggesting that allocation, targeting, and systemic change matter as much as investment magnitude.
