Census: NY has highest per-pupil costs in U.S.

Public schools in New York State continued to have the highest per-pupil cost of the 50 states in 2010, according to census data released Thursday.

The per-pupil cost in New York was $18,618, followed by New Jersey at $16,841 and Alaska at $15,783, the U.S. Census Bureau said. The three states held the same three spots the prior year.

On the low end, Utah spent $6,064 per pupil, Idaho spent $7,106 and Arizona spent $7,848, the bureau said.

The average spending per student nationwide was $10,615. The District of Columbia had a per-pupil cost higher than any state, at $18,667. The data are for elementary and secondary public schools for the 2009-2010 school year.

Revenue from state governments to local schools declined by $18 billion, or 6.5 percent, during 2010, the largest decrease since the Census Bureau started keeping the statistics in 1977, the report said.

Roger Tilles, a member of the State Board of Regent representing Long Island, said reduced funding is hitting academic and extracurricular programming hard, forcing cutbacks in after-school sports, full-day kindergarten, foreign languages, arts and music programs and even information technology literacy.

"Some of the things they are cutting are things I think are absolutely essential right now," he said.

It was only the second time since 1977 that state funding had decreased year to year. The first decrease, of 1.7 percent, was in 2009.

In another recent report, Quality Counts 2012: The Global Challenge, published in January by Education Week, New York ranked 24th in achievement in kindergarten through 12th grade in the survey, where the state earned a C-minus in performance despite high per-pupil funding.

Local and state school officials said the funding statistics demonstrate schools need more funding.

"That's certainly what we've been experiencing on Long Island," said Lorraine Deller, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. Our schools have had two years of a freeze [on state aid], followed by the largest reduction in state aid we've seen in decades. This year we've gotten a small increase."

And David G. Sciarra, executive director of the Newark, N.J.-based Education Law Center, in an opinion piece on the Huffington Post website, said, that, "A fair system of school funding is one that provides all students with a sufficient level of funding to achieve rigorous academic standards, and allocates more funding to students with greater needs."

Sciarra's group published a national school funding report in 2010 that found funding uneven.

"Current reform initiatives, such as attracting and retaining qualified teachers, providing high-quality kindergarten and preschool, and offering extended learning time cannot be sustained or succeed without fair school funding," he added