Many changes await the students who are heading back to school this week.

There is a new teacher evaluation system, more assessments for students, an entirely revamped curriculum and even a new law that combats bullying. All of them involve significant new training for educators and major expenses for school districts.

However well intentioned such mandates may be, they are one part of the complicated puzzle that has driven the cost to educate a student New York to the highest in the nation.

“We have significant mandates that drive costs in this state and they are very expensive,” said Tim Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association. “How are we going to pay for them?”

New York’s per pupil spending of $18,618 was higher than any state in the country and far above the national average of $10,615, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures from the 2009-10 school year, the most recent available. Only the District of Columbia had higher spending and New Jersey was the next highest at $16,841 followed by Alaska at $15,783, Vermont at $15,274 and Wyoming at $15,169. California, by contrast, spent just $9,375.

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo formed his education commission earlier this year, he used the opportunity to blast the state’s education system by noting that New York spends more on its students than any other state in the nation, but ranks 38th in high school graduation rates. He also pointed out that 73 percent of New York’s students graduate from high school, but just 37 percent are considered college ready….

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