Education spending is a thorny topic in my household. That’s especially true at this time of year, which is when our local real estate taxes are due. Our town does assessments in the spring at about the same time that we vote on annual school budgets. During the summer the local assessors resolve assessment disputes, make adjustments for state funding/rebate programs, and allocate taxes to individual property owners. In late August they send the resulting bills out. FWIW, the school portion of our assessment accounts for ~70% of our total bill with the balance covering town and county services.
According to Learner.com, the 2025 K-12 spending in NY state comes to $25,520 per student, which is the highest in the US. New Yorkers pay over 95% of those costs with only 4.27% coming from the national government. In contrast, Utah spends the least per student ($7,478) on K-12 education with 7.49% federally funded. Sixteen states receive more than 10% of their K-12 funding from the feds, with Alaska’s 14.61% leading the way. Most of these states are in the south or west with large rural or indigenous populations.
Higher Education Costs
While this is a big number, it’s not the totality of education spending by US states. Specifically, my real estate tax bill only covers the expenses for our local public school system. State spending for higher education also supports community colleges, universities, and other education programs. In NY these additional costs include the SUNY and community college systems as well as the previously mentioned rebates and subsidies.
Adding in those costs, NY state spends $40,934 per student. That’s an astoundingly big number, but it drops NY from the top education spender. In fact, NY falls all the way 11th. Much to my surprise, Alaska’s whopping $53,124 per student earns them the title as the state with the highest education spending. While they are the top combined spender, their $34,811 per student college education spending is not the highest. That honor belongs to New Mexico where the state spends $35,730 for each college student. At the other end of the spectrum, Washington DC spends only $1,717 per college student. Given it’s special status that’s not surprising. Ignoring DC, New Hampshire is the lowest spender at $5,789.
Full Picture
Our featured map courtesy of Learner.com combines all of the data revealing (at least to me) a surprising map of education spending by US states.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
Note to pay the bills
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