While voters across New York go to polls to determine the fate of proposed school district budgets, the Census Bureau has just released its annual breakdown of public school spending. As of 2010-11, New York once again topped the list, at $19,076 per pupil — a whopping 81 percent above the national average of $10,560 per pupil. The gulf between the Empire State and the national spending average has widened from 63 percent as of 2005-06.
Reflecting an economic and fiscal pinch in the wake of the recession, total public education spending in the United States actually declined in 2011 for the first time since the Census Bureau began collecting annual data in 1977, the Bureau reported. But New York bucked that trend, increasing spending by $458 per pupil, or 2.5 percent. Thirty other states also increased spending at least slightly, but only six states had larger school spending increases than New York’s.
Here is a table breaking down spending amounts, and year-to-year changes, for the 50 states and District of Columbia:
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