By Mark Stricherz
The Center Square

A half-dozen school districts in New York state reported spending more than $70,000 per student recently, with two districts spending almost or more than $100,000, an investigation by The Center Square found.

Each of the six districts were among the smallest in the state, with fewer than 340 students. Still, the figures dwarfed those of a typical pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school district in the Empire State in 2023-’24. According to the New York State Department of Education, the median figure for per-pupil spending was $35,095.

The Empire State’s highest spending schools were comparable not to their public counterparts but rather the nation’s most elite boarding schools and expensive private colleges.

Woodside Priory, a private-school run by Benedictine monks in Portola Valley, California, charged its boarding students more than any other in the country – $84,660 in 2023-’24, according to the school’s website. Pepperdine University, a private Christian school in Malibu, California, charged $90,012 for an on-campus student the same school year.

By contrast, Fire Island Unified School District, a small island off the coast of Long Island, reported spending nearly $50,000 more – $132,196 per pupil, according to state data. A school district spokesman did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Even less munificent New York school districts compare themselves to private schools. Consider Tuxedo Unified School District, an outer suburb of New York City, which reported spending $69,818 per student in 2023-’24. Its website boasts that schools there offer a “private school atmosphere in a public-school setting.” A school district spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking commenty.

Zilvinas Silenas, president of The Empire Center, a non-profit, non-partisan watchdog, called the spending figures “among the highest in the world.” A former high school teacher in his native Lithuania, Silenas said taxpayers should cast a skeptical eye at school district spending. “New York State has spent increasing amounts of money on the public schools since 1969, and what results have we gotten?” he said.

Silenas added that The Empire Center plans to release a report on out-of-control public school spending this month.

The study would come at a time when the topics of affordability and government spending have been obsessive issues in New York City’s mayoral race. Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman, has proposed universal childcare, government-run grocery stores, and fare-free city buses. His plan would cost $7 billion, with $6 billion of that from free childcare for children five and younger.

The other New York school district that spent more than the country’s most elite boarding schools, at $92,586, was Bridgehampton Union Free School District in Suffolk County. Superintendent Dr. Mary T. Kelly cited the district’s small size – 198 students in 2023-’24 – as a cost-prohibitive feature.

“In very small districts, fixed operational costs (staffing, facilities, utilities, transportation, technology infrastructure, and required services such as special education and health/safety compliance) are distributed over a far smaller student population”,” Kelly wrote in an email. “This means that even though our expenditures are prudent and often below average on a per-program basis, the per-pupil ratio is naturally much higher.”

She added that the school district offers Advanced Placement courses, career and technical education, performing arts, special education, and transportation in a far-flung district. “All must be provided regardless of enrollment size,” she said.

Fire Island had even fewer students – 34 in 2023-’24. A resort town, the island has no paved roads, an all-natural feature that the school district addresses by using an all-terrain bus to take students to its lone school, The Woodhull School.

Despite Fire Island’s and Bridgehampton’s small enrollments, other small school districts in the Empire State reported spending significantly less than both.

Roxbury Central School District, in the rural town of Roxbury within the Catskill Mountains, spent $47,732 for its 227 students from pre-kindergarten through high school, according to state figures. Colton-Pierrepont Central School District, in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, spent $30,806 per pupil for its 381 students.

One difference between Roxbury and Colton-Pierrepont school districts and its high-spending counterparts was teacher salaries.

The median annual teacher salary in Roxbury was $60,517 and in Colton-Pierrepont it was $62,742 in 2023-’24, according to The Empire Center. By contrast, the typical annual salary for a teacher in Fire Island was more than twice as much – $135,401, according to the state figures. In Bridgehampton, the figure was $97,345.

Kelly, Bridgehampton’s superintendent, disputed that teacher salaries were the main reason for high district spending. “Our teacher and staff salaries are in line with surrounding East End districts and regional labor market standards,” she wrote in an email. “Salaries are not the primary driver of our higher per-pupil expenditure. Rather, it is the fixed cost structure and breadth of services relative to a small student body.”

Three other school districts spent more than $70,000 per pupil in 2023-’24. Two were in Suffolk County in eastern Long Island – Quogue Union Free School District at $86,163, and Amagansett Union Free School District at $78,916. The other was in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City, Pocantico Hills Central School District, at $71,439.