What was expected to be a run-of-the-mill state-commissioned study of how Albany distributes money to local school districts has turned out to be required reading for New York taxpayers — and state lawmakers.
Frustrated with the state's old formula of doling out $25 billion in “enterprise aid,” lawmakers and Gov. Hochul commissioned the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a research shop within the state's university system, to take a look.
On Monday, the Rockefeller scientists released their 314-page findings without fanfare.
But true to their tendency to follow the data wherever it leads, they have bravely exposed corrupt weaknesses in the public education system that lawmakers were, at best, afraid to confront and, at worst, deliberately concealed for the benefit of teachers unions.
“New York stands out as a disproportionately high-spending state,” the report warns.
This is not a footnote. It's the first chapter.
Between 2012 and 2022, per-pupil spending in New York rose from less than $20,000 to nearly $30,000, nearly twice as fast as inflation.
Every year, New York spends more than any other state, and by 2022 it was spending 36% more than neighboring Massachusetts and close to double the national average.
Defenders of the status quo make excuses about how spending numbers are boosted by affluent suburbs, and that students learning English as a second language are to blame.
The number of school districts is routinely thrown into the mix.
reality? all New York's school district — even the most economical in areas with low costs of living — spends more than the national average.
Most regions are in the top quintile of spending.
Meanwhile, students in California or Texas are twice as likely to be counted as English language learners as they are in New York.
Even if the schools' administrative overhead costs were completely removed from its ledger, the Empire State would still spend more than all but a few states.
Readers of this page are no strangers to New York's “more is never enough” attitude when it comes to public education, but there's something different — and refreshing — about seeing data put out by an arm of state government itself.
The report displays a particularly vivid juxtaposition with two lines pointing in different directions: Total school spending in New York rose 41%, from $60 billion to $85 billion, over a decade that witnessed school enrollment. He falls 10%, from 2.7 million to 2.4 million – the lowest level since the early 1950s.
The student population is expected to decline further, falling to 13% below 2022 levels by 2031.
The calls for a study came after Governor Hochul sought to make modest adjustments to the foundation aid formula: first, change the inflation adjustment; The other is to end the “hold harmless” requirement that has the state sending hundreds of millions to shrinking school districts for ghost students.
Lawmakers cried bloody murder at the prospect of (fictitious) students in some of the country's wealthiest districts getting less funding.
But, as Rockefeller noted, nearly half of the districts were backed by harmless rules; Last year they paid out $136 million in “harmless bailout” funds.
The Rockefeller team proposed various practical adjustments to the aid calculations. She noted, for example, that the formula still uses Clinton-era census data to assess counties' social and economic needs.
However, she was careful to stay the course, as she pointed out how disconnected New York's education spending had become, while avoiding the issue of how little return New York was getting for its “investment.”
The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card, found that New York students' scores are decidedly mediocre, with combined scores in math and reading behind Texas, Kentucky and Kansas.
If New York can match Massachusetts' spending levels and School performance, taxpayers will save about $19 billion and students will have some of the highest test scores in the country.
Albany Republicans, the staunch opposition and champions of taxpayers, have been silent on the issue of school spending. Perhaps because some of them lost their voices when they also shouted about Hochul's defensible, modest cuts.
With teachers unions anticipating another increase in already unsustainable levels of state school aid, all to the benefit of fewer children, now would be a good time for lawmakers to read the Rockefeller report — and explain what they will do to fix this terrible situation.
Ken Girardin is director of research at the Empire Center for Public Policy.
