New York taxpayers spend more per public school student than anyone else in the country. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats have never had trouble finding more money for the system. Making sure children can read has proved much harder.
Preliminary results released by the New York State Education Department show that just 48 percent of students in grades three through eight were proficient in English language arts during the 2025-26 school year. Math proficiency reached 57 percent, while 47 percent of fifth- and eighth-graders met the standard in science. Final results are expected in November after districts review the data.
Because of Course: NYC Throwing Tax Dollars at Public Schools While Enrollment and Test Scores Tank
The elementary grades were worse. Only 43 percent of third-graders, 48 percent of fourth-graders, and 43 percent of fifth-graders scored proficient in English language arts. Third-grade proficiency fell 11 points from the previous school year. Fifth-grade proficiency fell 14 points.
The state cannot blame a new test for the drop. The English language arts assessments have measured the same standards since 2023, and the department says the yearly results can be compared directly.
The department acknowledged the size of the problem in unusually direct terms:
“We will not minimize or attempt to explain away what the data tell us. When scores increase, we report that progress. When they decline, we report that as well. Our responsibility is not to create a narrative around the results, but to understand them, identify where students need additional support, and act accordingly.”
At least the department is not pretending the numbers are good. It still has to explain how the nation's highest-spending public school system ended up with most tested students below the English language arts proficiency line.
New York spent $31,918 per student in fiscal year 2024, the highest figure among the states and nearly twice the national average of $17,619. New York City led the country's 100 largest school systems at $35,796 per student. Districts outside the state's five largest cities plan to spend an average of $37,033 per student in 2026-27, even as most expect enrollment to decline. Sixty-seven districts plan to spend more than $50,000 per student. The latest state budget adds $39 billion in school aid, $1.7 billion more than the previous year. Those figures make another plea for more funding a tough sell.
Then there are the charter schools. On the 2025 state exams, 92 percent of third-graders across 29 Success Academy elementary schools were proficient in English language arts, and 97 percent were proficient in math. New York City district schools posted rates of 58 percent and just over 63 percent, respectively. Success Academy also spent about $21,218 per student during the 2024-25 school year, compared with roughly $32,000 in the city system.
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is still fighting charter expansion. In June, the union and its state affiliate sued to block the transfer of a Success Academy charter to a new school. UFT President Michael Mulgrew argued:
“Charter schools drain resources from district public schools, and the cap was created to minimize harm.”
The union filed that lawsuit less than two months before the state released another round of ugly scores. Let that sink in. While city third-graders were falling 14 points behind in reading, the UFT's priority was making sure those same kids couldn't escape to a school that actually works. Parents looking at a 43 percent third-grade English language arts proficiency rate may have some thoughts about whose interests the union is actually protecting.
Hochul and the Democrat-controlled Legislature have answered every round of weak results with another funding increase and another round of promises. It hasn't worked. It isn't working. The 2026 scores make that undeniable. New York parents deserve straight answers: Which programs are being scrapped? Who is being held accountable? And why should anyone believe the next billion dollars will produce different results than the last hundred billion did? The kids are still waiting to learn how to read. Their parents are done waiting for excuses.
Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.
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