Researchers linked to the state itself warn of New Yorks off-the-charts school spending

What was expected to be a mundane state-ordered study into how Albany doles out cash to local school districts turns out to be required reading for New York taxpayers — and state lawmakers.Frustrated with the state’s archaic formula for dispensing $25 billion in “Foundation Aid,” lawmakers and Gov.Hochul commissioned the Rockefeller Institute of Government, a research shop within the state university system, to have a look.The Rockefeller wonks on Monday issued their 314-page findings without fanfare.But true to their penchant for following data wherever they lead, they bravely exposed the rotten underbelly of a public-education system lawmakers at best have been afraid to confront and at worst have purposefully concealed to benefit the teachers’ unions.“New York stands out as a disproportionately high-spending state,” the report warns.This isn’t a footnote. It’s chapter one.Between 2012 and 2022, New York’s per-pupil spending rocketed from less than $20,000 to nearly $30,000, almost twice as quickly as inflation.In every year, New York spent more than any other state, and by 2022 was spending 36% more than neighboring Massachusetts and close to double the national average.Defenders of the status quo concoct excuses about how spending figures are boosted by wealthy suburbs and that students learning English as a second language are to blame.The number of school districts routinely gets thrown into the mix.The reality? Every school district in New York — even the most frugal outfits in regions with lower costs of living — spends more than the national median. Most districts fall into the top quintile of spending.Meanwhile, students in California or Texas are about twice as likely to be counted as English language-learners as ones in New York.And even if the administrative overhead costs of schools were entirely deleted from its ledger, the Empire State would still outspend all but a few states.Readers of this page are no strangers to New ...