Last week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin inked the city’s $126 billion budget for fiscal year 2027. That sum includes record-busting education spending, amounting to 31 percent of the budget.
The new surge in funding reflects educational priorities at odds with the needs and preferences of families. The city continues to spend lavishly on underperforming, under-enrolled schools and invest in initiatives unlikely to reverse these trends. More money won’t fix New York public schools’ problems; it will only reward failure.
Finally, a reason to check your email.
Sign up for our free newsletter today.
The city’s 2027 budget boosts Department of Education funding by $894 million, bringing the total to $38.6 billion. This increase comes despite a projected decline in K-12 enrollment next year, including steep losses in pre-K and kindergarten students. In the 2024–25 school year, the city enrolled 2,500 fewer pre-K students and 1,200 kindergarteners.
The DOE budget excludes pension and benefits expenses, so the actual cost to New York City taxpayers is even higher. And, because enrollment is declining, per-pupil spending will probably grow from its current all-time high of $42,000 per child.
City officials refuse to admit it, but the uncomfortable reality is that New York City has the most inefficient public schools in the nation. No large urban district spends so much and gets so little in results for its children. As long as this reality goes unacknowledged, more money won’t make much difference.
A new report by the Success Academy charter network meticulously details the level of failure in New York City public schools. Of 1,600 schools, 503 had a majority of students who failed the state test in both math and reading last year. The situation is particularly dire in high schools, where 62 percent of students attend a failing school.
The extent of academic troubles may be even greater, given that many students opt out of statewide testing. In grades three to eight, Success Academy found, 13 percent of students opt out of the ELA state test, and 11 percent opt out of the math test.
The new budget does nothing to address these dismal academic results; instead, it continues to reward failure. The city has already spent nearly $1.9 billion on “hold harmless” policies since 2020 to keep budgets intact in schools losing enrollment. No plan exists to close even the schools clearly failing to convince families that they are a good educational option.
Nor is the city taking curricular problems as seriously as it should. The district has made efforts to improve its curriculum through NYC Reads, addressing previous gaps in reading instruction. But one of the program’s curricula, Into Reading, has significant issues, including low-quality material and not enough depth to build kids’ knowledge base for comprehension. Nonetheless, it remains the most popular choice among district superintendents, particularly in areas with higher concentrations of low-income students.
Next year’s budget continues to prioritize funding for underperforming schools while not expanding high-performing, in-demand schools. This approach will shovel more money at kids without corresponding academic improvement. As the saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. By any metric, that makes the current administration’s approach to New York City public schools insane.