New York Public Schools: Spend too much, deliver too little

Stephen Kershnar

New York Schools: Overspending and Underdelivering

Dunkirk-Fredonia Observer

June 25, 2018

            When considering New York’s spending on K-12 schools, it is worth considering Stein’s Law: If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.  

New York spends a staggering sum on education. In the 2018-2019 academic year, according to Syracuse.com, roughly, the average (median) spending per student in upstate New York, outside of the five major cities, will be $26,000 per student. The five major cities (Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers) don’t vote on school budgets. It would be cheaper for taxpayers to give parents a new Honda Accord per child per year than to pay for his or her education. In comparison, the site reports, the U.S. average was $11,000 per student in 2015 (the most recent U.S. Census data available).

According to E. J. McMahon of the Empire Center, using 2016 data, the salaries and benefits of instructors drive New York’s out-of-control spending. New York spent an incredible $16,000 per student on these salaries and benefits. This is an incredible 120% above the national average of $7,000. In fact, McMahon points out, New York’s spending in this category alone exceeded the total per-pupil spending of all but six states.

When it comes to spending on bureaucracy, New York is no slacker. McMahon points out that in the category of “support services,” which measures the bureaucratic overhead of central and school administration, New York spent $6,000 per student. This was 7^th in the nation and 49% above the national average.

On a per capita basis, New York state taxpayers are groaning in pain to carry this load. Relative to personal income, McMahon reports, New York’s elementary and secondary education spent $52.87 per $1,000 in personal income. This ranks it 3rd, behind Alaska and Vermont. Many New York counties have painful property taxes.

Nor is the out-of-control spending due to New York’s being richer than other states. This can be seen if we compare it to its neighbors. On a per-pupil basis, McMahon reports, New York’s school expenditures were 22% higher than New Jersey’s, 18% higher than Connecticut’s, and 43% higher than Massachusetts’ expenditures. These states are noticeably richer than New York in terms of per capita income (whether average or median).

For all this spending, New York gives its students a below average education. U.S. News & World Report rates it 31^st in preparing kids for college. This ranking is generous as it ranks 33^rd in National Assessment of Educational Progress math and reading scores and an embarrassing 39^th in high school graduation.

  

The odd thing is that there is no good reason to socialize the cost of education at all, let alone at this princely level. Parents are responsible for paying for their children’s food, housing, and medicine unless they are poor or lower middle class and then they are given various forms of welfare (consider, for example, food stamps, subsidized school meals, Section 8 vouchers, and Medicaid). Even when the state subsidizes these goods and services, it usually pays private businesses, such as supermarkets, to provide them.

At the very least, parents should have to pay tuition for each child who goes to public school. Ditto on extracurricular activities.  

It is unclear why states force taxpayers to fork over money to parents so that they don’t have to pay for their own children’s education. We don’t do this for children’s food, housing, and medicine. The economic arguments for education socialism are surprisingly weak. As George Mason economist Bryan Caplan points, out, these arguments tend to fall into three categories. First, parents have too little money to pay for their children’s education. Second, parents are foolish or have bad values and so don’t care enough about their children’s education. Third, education benefits people other than the student (that is, has positive externalities) and so it is efficient to subsidize it. Even if these arguments were not empirically unsupported and insulting, it is odd that they are applied to education and not food, medicine, and shelter.

Clearly, New York needs to sharply cut the number of teachers and bureaucracy. There is no reason for taxpayers to have to pay for an army of in-house guidance counselors, nurses, psychologists, etc. when most parents would never do so if they were to have to pay for their children’s education. The same is true for classes in areas not central to being well-educated or productive. These include foreign languages, home economics, gym, music, studio art, and vocational education classes for students on the college track. Ditto for teams, orchestras, and plays. Even if you think instruction in these areas is worthwhile, it doesn’t follow that taxpayers should be the ones to pay for it. Again, if most parents would judge something for their children not worth spending money on, then taxpayers should not be required to do so.  

High school students, at least the better ones, should be put in college classes as soon as possible. There is no reason for better students to take calculus, chemistry, history, or physics in their senior year rather than taking these classes at a local college. Writing in The Atlantic, John Tierney claims that even AP classes don’t hold a candle to equivalent college classes.  From a taxpayer’s perspective, the subsidy per college student is a fraction of that of a K-12 student.

As an incentive for school districts to regain control of their spending, the state should cease subsidizing school districts that aren’t poor. There is no reason for taxpayers from the Adirondacks to subsidize schools in wealthy parts of Nassau and Westchester. The federal government should cut off all education aid to states that aren’t poor, such as Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. This can be done in part by ending subsidies and in part by preventing property taxes from being deducted from taxable income.

New York spends too much on education, grinds down taxpayers to do so, and gets poor results. This cannot go on forever.