New York City is now spending a record $43 billion on its public school system — that's $44,000 per student — and somehow, over 40% of third through eighth graders still can't pass a basic reading or math test. More money, fewer students, worse results. Welcome to government math.
But sure, the real problem is we're not spending enough. Somebody call the fire department — not for the schools, but for the taxpayers' wallets.
Let's put $44,000 per pupil in perspective. That's more than the tuition at most private schools in America. It's more than double the national median. It's 50% more than Los Angeles and Chicago spend per student, and 150% more than Miami. New York City is the only school district in the entire country spending north of $30,000 per child — the next closest, Washington D.C., clocks in at $27,425. And NYC blows past that like it's standing still.
The New York Post reports that this record spending comes as enrollment has cratered. NYC public schools have lost roughly 12% of their students since 2020, dropping from about 1 million kids down to 884,000 in the 2025-26 school year. That's over 100,000 students who vanished from the system. But did the budget shrink? Don't make me laugh. It ballooned from $34.5 billion to over $43 billion during the same period.
Here's the kicker — thanks to something called the "hold harmless" policy, schools keep their full budgets even when students leave. So a school that loses 20% of its kids still gets 100% of its cash. Your tax dollars at work, folks.
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And what are we getting for this historic investment? According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of New York eighth-graders are proficient in reading. Only 26% are proficient in math. Over 40% of students in grades three through eight can't demonstrate basic proficiency in either subject. Nearly 35% of all students are chronically absent — meaning they miss more than 10% of school days.
So we're spending $44,000 a year on kids who aren't showing up, can't read when they do, and are being taught by a system with a 9-to-1 student-teacher ratio that somehow still can't get the job done. Massachusetts spends roughly $23,000 per student — about half what New York blows — and leads the nation in proficiency at 40% in reading and 37% in math.
Meanwhile, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took office in January 2026, wants to increase the education budget by another $3 billion — a 9% bump — for fiscal year 2027. Because when you're standing in a hole, the progressive solution is always to dig faster.
Parents are voting with their feet. Homeschooling in New York City jumped from under 9,000 families in 2020 to over 15,000 by 2024 — a 68% increase — despite New York having some of the most restrictive homeschool regulations in the country. Black student enrollment has plummeted 54% over the past twenty years, from 231,247 in 2004 to just 105,870 in 2024. The families who can escape, are escaping.
And here's the final insult: NYC now classifies 22% of its students as special education — nearly double the 11% rate from 2000 and well above the 15% national average. More classifications mean more money, more staff, more bureaucracy. It's almost like the system is designed to feed itself rather than educate children.
Education accounts for 35.5% of New York City's entire budget. One-third of every dollar the city spends goes into a school system that can't teach kids to read. If any private business burned through $43 billion and delivered these results, it would be bankrupt and its executives would be in court.
But this is government, so instead of accountability, we get a budget increase. Slow clap.
