With all the money from the federal government’s COVID-19 relief, states received a huge influx of funds in 2022 for schools. But how much did an increase in taxpayer dollars toward school districts affect student performance?
According to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the United States Census Bureau, despite the largest increase in per-pupil funding in two decades, student academic achievement in the top-spending states sometimes trailed that of their lower-spending counterparts.
According to the Census Bureau, schools received the largest increase in per-pupil funding year over year in 2022.
“Average U.S. public school spending per pupil in elementary and secondary schools rose 8.9% to $15,633 in fiscal year (FY) 2022 from the previous year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Annual Survey of School System Finances data,” the agency wrote in a post this spring.
The agency said New York topped the list of high-spending states, with an estimated $29,873 going toward one pupil. New York was followed by the District of Columbia ($27,425), New Jersey ($25,099), Vermont ($24,608) and then Connecticut ($24,453).
The lowest-spending states were Utah at $9,552 per pupil, Idaho ($9,670), Arizona ($10,315), Oklahoma ($10,890) and Mississippi ($10,984), according to the Census Bureau’s analysis.
