(The Center Square) – As national education spending per pupil rises, student enrollment is dropping and test scores across the United States are falling, which raises concern over how effectively taxpayer dollars are being used in public schools.
Since 2002, K-12 public school spending has increased by more than 35%, yet enrollment has dropped 2.1%, which is over a million students over the past five years. Student achievement has also declined, with only one-third of students nationwide scoring at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading, according to the National Assessment Governing Board.
Currently, 40% of fourth graders are working below the NAEP basic level in reading, the highest percentage since 2002.
These declines continue despite record per-pupil spending. In 2024, New York leads as the highest per-pupil spending state, at $32,284. California is also among the highest, currently at $25,941. The lowest spending states include Utah, Idaho and Mississippi.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, average reading scores fell three points in 2022, while eighth-grade math dropped eight points. These declines were largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while total nationwide school district debt rose more than 2.1% from $532.5 billion in 2021 to $543.9 billion in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
An increase in teacher and administrator salaries and benefits is a primary cause of rising school spending. Among the 50 states, California maintains the highest average starting teacher salary at $58,409. The average salary for teachers in California is $101,084, according to a WalletHub report.
School spending has risen amid concerns over test scores.
“The continued declines in reading scores are particularly troubling. Reading is foundational to all subjects, and failure to read well keeps students from accessing information and building knowledge across content areas,” National Assessment Governing Board member Patrick Kelly said in a news release.
Now, American public schools are nearing $1 trillion in annual spending, a 35% increase between 2002 and 2023, according to a report by Reason Foundation. During that period, the average per-student spending rose from $14,969 to $20,322.
Since the pandemic, a range of factors has contributed to declining enrollment and test scores, yet states have seen minimal broad improvement in educational outcomes as states continue to increase spending per pupil.
California continues to see rising spending per pupil and uneven performance.
The state spends $25,941 per pupil for a total of over a billion dollars annually.
Despite U.S. News & World Report ranking California 37th in Pre-K-12 education because of high school graduation rates, the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and math scores are falling, along with college readiness test scores such as SATs.
In 2024, California’s fourth- and eighth-grade math performance on the NAEP was below the national average, with 35% of fourth graders and 25% of eighth graders proficient in math, respectively.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest district, has seen student enrollment significantly decrease in the past two decades from 747,009 in 2003-04 to 387,152 students this year.
In June, LAUSD board members unanimously approved the 2025-26 budget of $18.8 billion, which put the district at a $2.9 billion deficit with its projected revenue for the next fiscal year at $15.9 billion.
“Los Angeles Unified has not experienced a decline in test scores since 2020,” an LAUSD spokesperson told The Center Square. “The district continues to deliver historic academic gains, outpacing both the state and other large districts.”
In 2024, the average NAEP score for eighth graders in Los Angeles was 260 out of 500, compared to 262 in 2022. Only 18% of LAUSD students performed at or above the NAEP proficient level in 2024.
In New York, the nation’s highest-spending state, per-pupil funding has continued to rise as enrollment declines. New York City public schools, which make up the nation’s largest school district, spent about $25,810 per student in 2019. That rose to more than $32,284 in 2025, with projections nearing $34,717 in 2026.
District enrollment fell from 955,490 students in the 2020-21 school year to 906,248 in 2024-25, with 2026 preliminary estimates showing further declines to 884,400 students.
“For the 2025-2026 school year, we are keeping all of our schools’ budgets stable, investing in all of our students, and ensuring our educators have the resources they need,” former New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement sent to The Center Square. “Amidst shifts in enrollment and funding, our educators should only have to focus on one thing: our students.”
Compared to the states, test scores in New York City have improved. In the 2024-25 school year, 56.3% of students in third through eighth grade met the state proficiency standard in English language arts, a 7.2-point increase from the prior year. Math proficiency rose to 56.9%, a 3.5-point gain.
Yet these improvements, when compared to other states, show New York has continued to rank below the national average in fourth and eighth-grade performance from 2019 to 2024, according to the National Report Card.
States on the other end that have lower spending per pupil are also seeing enrollment shifts.
Mississippi has increased per-pupil spending from about $9,189.61 in the 2019-20 school year to nearly $12,998 in 2025. Over the same period, enrollment declined from roughly 466,002 students to about 424,534.
In Idaho, per-pupil spending in 2024 was $10,246, and test scores still reflect the national decline but remain near or above national averages. Numbers show Idaho is doing better with its test scores than states with higher spending per pupil.
NAEP data show eighth-grade reading performance fell from about 74% proficient in 2018-19 to roughly 66.7% in 2023-24, which is still successful compared to the 2024 national average of eighth-grade reading performance of 56% proficient.
“In spite of current challenges, public education in Idaho remains strong. Over the last three years, we have seen marked achievement gains and the state continues to show measurable returns on its investments in student success,” Maggie Reynolds, public information officer for the Idaho Department of Education, told The Center Square.
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon continues to voice concerns over the steady national decline of student performance levels in K-12 education despite increased taxpayer-funded spending per pupil.
“American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12 … nearly half of America’s high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading,” McMahon said in a statement when the 2024 NAEP reports came out. “Despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs, the achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading than ever before.
