NY Spends Most On Public Education Yet Sees Low Graduation Rates

NEW YORK — New York spends more on its public school students than any other state yet has among the lowest graduation rates in the nation, a new study shows.

New York spent more than $23,000 per public and secondary school student in 2017 — more than three times Utah's $7,179 — yet had only a 81.8 percent graduation rate, the 13th lowest in the U.S., according to a study from the education website HeyTutor.

HeyTutor analysts looked at U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Education Statistics, and the Nation’s Report Card to analyze per pupil spending and discovered no correlation between spending and academic success.

"Neither graduation rates nor performance on standardized testing are correlated with state spending," analysts wrote.

In 2017, New York spent $63,62 billion on its students — $16,113 per student on instruction, $6,480 per student on support services — yet saw only average academic performance rates, the study shows.

New York's poor graduation rate was higher than only 11 states — Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Georgia, Louisiana, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Alaska, and the District of Columbia.

But Utah spent just $7,179 per student, saw above average academic performances and had an 86 percent graduation rate, according to the study.

Dollars have different values in the two states — a Business Insider report from 2017 shows $100 was worth $103.09 in Utah but just $86.73 in New York — which, taken into consideration, decreases the margin in spending, but not enormously.

Factoring in the different worth of the dollar per each state, New York still spent about $12,600 more per student.

Find out more about the nationwide results here.