{"id":994109,"date":"2026-08-11T09:31:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/994109\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:31:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:31:58","slug":"new-poll-shows-displeasure-with-new-york-public-school-results-compared-to-36000-per-student-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/994109\/","title":{"rendered":"New poll shows displeasure with New York public school results compared to $36,000-per-student costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Empire Center for Public Policy poll on public schools and education released on Saturday found that a fraction of likely voters in New York\u2019s 2026 general election think public education in the Empire State is on the right course.<\/p>\n

The group sponsored a poll that asked respondents whether they thought the state\u2019s school system should work to improve reading and math scores, spend less money per student, do both, or continue on as is, and 94% of those surveyed said schools should improve student scores, reduce spending, or do both.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen only 4 percent of voters support staying the course, the message is unmistakable: New York\u2019s education system needs serious reform,\u201d said President of the Empire Center Zilvinas Silenas.<\/p>\n

Pollsters also prefaced the question by noting that the state spends about $36,000 per student each year, which approaches twice the national average and is associated with middling test scores<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The poll follows last week\u2019s release of preliminary data<\/a> showing a sharp dip in reading proficiency among students in grades 3 through 8, around 6% compared to the previous year. The scores were concentrated in grades 3 through 5 with both third and fifth grade English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency dropping more than 10 percentage points while fourth grade ELA proficiency dropped by nearly 6 percentage points.<\/p>\n

The survey also asked about testing required to graduate, which state education officials announced last month may not be a requirement going forward as part of its initiative to overhaul graduation guidelines<\/a>. The move aims to focus on more holistic benchmarks of education, rather than relying heavily on standardized test scores, which have been the subject of much debate as a predictor of academic success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly two-thirds of respondents opposed allowing students to graduate without passing required exams, even if they completed alternatives such as projects, presentations or community service. Respondents remained opposed across demographic groups, although younger adults and Democrats were somewhat more receptive to alternative pathways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese results show deep public skepticism toward the State Education Department\u2019s current direction,\u201d said Silenas.\n<\/p>\n

The NYC Department of Education has not yet responded to a request for comment.\n<\/p>\n

The findings may signal a potential disconnect between policymakers and the public over how student success should be measured. As New York considers moving away from standardized testing as a central graduation benchmark, the poll indicates that many voters remain supportive of maintaining traditional testing requirements.<\/p>\n

The poll and the recent lackluster test scores come at a time when the NYC public school system is grappling with a host of other issues such as compensation, the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom and scrutiny over funding and DOE contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Empire Center polled 600 New Yorkers for the survey; the margin of error was +\/- 4%.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Empire Center for Public Policy poll on public schools and education released on Saturday found that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":994110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,17452,407,35965,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,49215,6215,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-994109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-department-of-education","tag-education","tag-literacy","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-public-schools","tag-reading","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117076187528376102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994109","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=994109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}