The past few weeks have shed light on the New York education dilemma: how is it possible that our state spends so much money yet yields so little learning for our children?

Governor Hochul on January 21 announced the fiscal 2026 Executive Budget, which allocates an astonishing $37.4 billion in total school aid. This budget ensures that New York maintains the most expensive public schools in the country, spending 91 percent above the national average for per-pupil funding as reported by the Citizens Budget Commission.

It would be ideal if New York’s children received a top-notch education for all this investment, but the reality is starkly different. The 2024 Nation’s Report Card shows that only 37 percent of New York 4th graders are proficient in math and just 31 percent in reading. “The average score of fourth-grade students in New York was not significantly different from the average score for students in the nation,” the report states.

Given this concerning situation, one would expect the New York Board of Regents to prioritize raising academic standards and enhancing efficiency in public schools. Instead, their focus in recent years has been on obscuring learning loss by lowering state performance standards and eliminating the high school Regents exam.

Furthermore, the Board of Regents has discreetly granted State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa a raise of $155,000 due to her “terrific” results for our students, the New York Post reported. She now earns a total of $489,000 per year to lead the nation’s most inefficient public schools. 

The SUNY Board of Trustees also recently raised the salary of State University of New York Chancellor John King to more than $1 million and increased his housing allowance to $15,000 per month, Politico reported.

In New York City, Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos is dissatisfied with the current per-pupil funding of $39,304 and is requesting additional funds to implement proposed cell phone bans in public schools, a Post report says. 

The president of New York State United Teachers, Melinda Person, gave an interview recently saying that “we have a long list of things we are asking for and we are regularly told that the State can not afford it” and that is why her coalition is advocating for an increase in income and corporate taxes in NY. 

Yet according to an analysis from Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, New York’s spending on education has grown nearly double the rate of inflation over the last ten years, while children’s performance has steadily declined.

The crucial question for all New York gubernatorial candidates should be how they plan to halt the unchecked spending of our tax dollars on education and instead focus on delivering actual learning for our children. 

We cannot continue to have the most expensive public schools in the nation, alongside lavish salaries for state education officials, while our schoolchildren achieve mediocre results on national tests.