New York has an education problem that no one really likes to talk about: it spends more than any other state or country in the world yet achieves mediocre results at best. This might come as a surprise, especially since some politicians and pundits tout New York as a leader in education.

New York is definitely a leader when it comes to spending money. Based on the Empire Center’s report on recent school district budgets, next school year educating one K-12 student will cost taxpayers $35,000. This is up from 2022-2023 when, based on the US Census Bureau data it was $30,000, nearly double the US average, surpassing Massachusetts by 30 percent and New Jersey by 15 percent.

New York has been a leader in spending for at least half a century. The National Center for Education Statistics data for the 1969-2021 period shows that New York’s spending shot up by 213 percent, compared to 173 percent for the US average (in inflation adjusted terms).

Yet this extraordinary spending did not translate into extraordinary achievements. According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (known as the Nation’s Report Card) New York scored below the U.S. average for grade 4 mathematics, losing to poorer and lower-spending states such as Kentucky and Louisiana. In grade 4 reading, we scored above the U.S. average, yet still below Kentucky or Louisiana.

In grade 8 reading, New York scored at the U.S. average, as did the aforementioned Kentucky and Louisiana. At the same time Massachusetts and New Jersey took the top spots, despite spending significantly less.

New York’s mediocre scores are not a recent development. New York has been scoring around the U.S. average since 1992. The last time New York exceeded it by two points was 2009 in mathematics and 2015 in reading.

The same disconnect between spending and achievement can be seen among school districts inside New York. There are some very clear outliers, such as Fire Island school district, which spends an astonishing $149,000 per student. Also, Bridgehampton at $118,000, and Pocantico Hills at $89,000. To be fair, Fire Island had only 34 students. At the same time Edinburg Common is also small with 52 students and manages to educate them for a mere $27,000 each.

If we look at larger districts, Buffalo city schools spent nearly $29,000 per student, and only 27 percent of its students achieved proficiency in English Language Arts, based on state Education Department data for 2022-23. Yonkers schools spent $29,000 and reached 41 percent proficiency. Meanwhile, Rochester spent $30,000 and yielded alarmingly low proficiency rates—just 16% in English language arts and 12% in mathematics.

At the other end of the spectrum, Pittsford Central School District achieved 82% proficiency in math and 71% in reading while spending at roughly the same level as Buffalo or Yonkers. Districts such as Saratoga Springs, North Colonie and Starpoint spent around $21,000 and delivered better results than many of the high-spending districts.

This is not to say that every school or district should spend exactly the same amount to educate one student or that we should expect exactly the same test scores from everyone. Test scores do not tell the entire story. Education is hard, and doing it well is difficult.

That said, New York clearly shows that more spending alone is not the solution. If merely throwing money at education were the answer, New York would easily top all the rankings on reading, math, science nationwide and globally.

New York’s uniqueness should not be an excuse to ignore good practices from other states. Massachusetts also has a large proportion of English learners, high teacher pay and low student to teacher ratio (11.7 in New York, 12 in Massachusetts and 15.4 for US average). Yet, as previously discussed, Massachusetts tops the charts of educational achievement while spending 30 percent less than New York does.

If state lawmakers are serious about improving schools, they should do two things. First, admit that New York has a problem with K-12 education. Second, recall that $35,000 per student adds up to $90 billion. Before asking taxpayers for more, New York’s leaders should be figuring out how to get a decent return on this massive investment.