(The Center Square) \u2014\u00a0A half-dozen\u00a0school districts in New York state\u00a0reported spending more than $70,000 per\u00a0student recently, with two districts spending\u00a0almost or\u00a0more than $100,000, an investigation by The Center Square found.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each of the six districts\u00a0were among the smallest in the state, with fewer than 340 students. Still, the figures dwarfed those of\u00a0a\u00a0typical\u00a0pre-kindergarten through 12th\u00a0grade\u00a0school district in the Empire State\u00a0in 2023-\u201924. According to the New York State Department of Education, the median figure for per-pupil spending was $35,095.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Empire State\u2019s\u00a0highest spending schools\u00a0were\u00a0comparable not to their public counterparts but rather the nation\u2019s most elite boarding schools\u00a0and\u00a0expensive private colleges.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Woodside Priory, a private-school run by Benedictine monks in Portola Valley, California, charged its boarding students\u00a0more than any other in the country \u2013\u00a0$84,660 in 2023-\u201924, according to the school\u2019s website.\u00a0Pepperdine University, a private Christian school in Malibu, California, charged $90,012 for an on-campus student the same school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By contrast,\u00a0Fire Island Unified School District, a small island off the coast of Long Island,\u00a0reported\u00a0spending\u00a0nearly $50,000 more \u2013\u00a0$132,196 per pupil, according to state data.\u00a0A school district\u00a0spokesman\u00a0did not respond to an email seeking comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even\u00a0less munificent\u00a0New York school\u00a0districts compare themselves\u00a0to private schools.\u00a0Consider Tuxedo Unified School District, an outer suburb of New York City, which reported spending $69,818 per student in 2023-\u201924. Its website boasts that schools there offer a \u201cprivate school atmosphere in a public-school setting.\u201d A school district\u00a0spokesman\u00a0did not immediately\u00a0respond to an email seeking commenty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zilvinas\u00a0Silenas, president of The Empire Center, a non-profit, non-partisan\u00a0watchdog,\u00a0called the spending figures \u201camong the highest in the world.\u201d A former high school teacher in his native\u00a0Lithuania,\u00a0Silenas\u00a0said taxpayers should cast a skeptical eye at\u00a0school district spending. \u201cNew York State has spent increasing amounts of money on the public schools since 1969, and what results have we gotten?\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Silenas\u00a0added\u00a0that\u00a0The Empire Center plans to release a report on out-of-control public school spending this month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The study\u00a0would\u00a0come at a time when the topics of affordability and government spending have been\u00a0obsessive issues\u00a0in New York City\u2019s mayoral race. Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, a state\u00a0assemblyman, has proposed universal childcare, government-run grocery stores, and fare-free city buses. His plan would cost\u00a0$7 billion, with\u00a0$6 billion\u00a0of that from free childcare for children five and younger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other\u00a0New York\u00a0school district that spent more than the country\u2019s most elite boarding schools, at $92,586,\u00a0was Bridgehampton Union Free School District\u00a0in Suffolk County.\u00a0Superintendent\u00a0Dr. Mary T. Kelly\u00a0cited the district\u2019s small size \u2013\u00a0198 students in 2023-\u201924 \u2013\u00a0as a\u00a0cost-prohibitive feature.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn\u00a0very small districts, fixed operational costs (staffing, facilities, utilities,\u00a0transportation, technology infrastructure, and required services such as special education and health\/safety compliance) are distributed over a far smaller student population\u201d,\u201d Kelly wrote in an email.\u00a0“This means that even though\u00a0our expenditures are prudent and often below average on a per-program basis, the per-pupil ratio is naturally much higher.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She added that the school district offers Advanced Placement courses, career and technical education, performing arts, special education, and\u00a0transportation in a far-flung district. \u201cAll\u00a0must be provided regardless of enrollment size,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fire Island had even fewer students \u2013 34 in 2023-\u201924.\u00a0A resort town, the island has no paved roads, an all-natural feature that the school district addresses by using an all-terrain bus to take students to its lone\u00a0school, The Woodhull School.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite Fire Island’s and Bridgehampton\u2019s small enrollments, other small school districts in the Empire State reported spending significantly less than both.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roxbury Central School District, in the rural town of Roxbury within the Catskill Mountains,\u00a0spent $47,732 for its\u00a0227 students from pre-kindergarten through high school, according to state figures.\u00a0Colton-Pierrepont Central School District, in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, spent $30,806\u00a0per pupil\u00a0for its 381 students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
One difference between Roxbury and Colton-Pierrepont school districts and its high-spending counterparts was teacher salaries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The median\u00a0annual teacher salary in Roxbury was $60,517 and\u00a0in\u00a0Colton-Pierrepont\u00a0it was $62,742\u00a0in 2023-\u201924, according to The Empire Center. By contrast, the typical annual salary for a teacher in\u00a0Fire Island was more than twice as much \u2013 $135,401, according to the state figures. In Bridgehampton, the figure was $97,345.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kelly, Bridgehampton\u2019s superintendent, disputed\u00a0that\u00a0teacher salaries\u00a0were the main reason for high district spending. \u201cOur teacher and staff salaries are in line with surrounding East End districts and regional labor market standards,\u201d she wrote in an email. \u201cSalaries are not the primary driver of our higher per-pupil expenditure. Rather, it is the fixed cost structure and breadth of services\u00a0relative\u00a0to a small student body.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three other\u00a0school districts spent more than $70,000 per pupil in 2023-\u201924. Two were\u00a0in Suffolk County in eastern Long Island \u2013\u00a0Quogue\u00a0Union Free School District\u00a0at $86,163,\u00a0and Amagansett Union Free School District\u00a0at $78,916. The other was in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City,\u00a0Pocantico Hills Central School\u00a0District,\u00a0at $71,439.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2014\u00a0A half-dozen\u00a0school districts in New York state\u00a0reported spending more than $70,000 per\u00a0student recently, with two…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":300468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[14871,5229,407,1571,405,403,40552,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-300467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-accountability","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-national","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new_york","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115368052999523656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}