Billion-Dollar School Push Sparks NYC Fury

New York City’s political class is pushing yet another billion dollars into its public-school system—even as the results still don’t match the price tag.

Story Snapshot

New York City’s Department of Education consumes about 40% of the city budget, with per-student spending projected to top $42,000.
City enrollment has fallen roughly 10% since 2010, yet education spending has continued rising, with the DOE budget reaching about $40 billion.
New York State leaders are advertising record school-aid totals, including a $39.3 billion proposal in the FY 2027 executive budget.
Structural inefficiencies—like underenrolled schools and fragmented administration—remain central obstacles to better outcomes.

NYC School Spending Keeps Rising While Enrollment Falls

New York City’s public-school system sits at the center of a growing fiscal and governance debate because the spending trajectory and the student counts are moving in opposite directions. The city’s Department of Education accounts for roughly 40% of the entire city budget, and per-pupil spending is projected to exceed $42,000—among the highest figures for major districts. Meanwhile, enrollment has dropped about 10% since 2010, raising basic questions about scale, staffing, and facilities.

Budget growth has not been subtle. Since 2019, the DOE budget has reportedly grown by more than $1 billion per year, reaching about $40 billion. For taxpayers, that pattern matters because it suggests the system has been insulated from the normal pressure to right-size when demand changes. In plain terms, families are watching the bill go up while the student population declines—an uncomfortable combination that keeps fueling calls for accountability before more money is added.

Albany’s “Record Aid” Messaging Collides With Local Reality

At the state level, Governor Kathy Hochul’s Fiscal Year 2027 executive budget highlights $39.3 billion in school aid, described as the highest level in state history. The proposal also points to additional support tied to initiatives such as Universal Pre-K and free school meals. Those line items may be popular politically, but the broader question for New Yorkers is whether layering new commitments on top of an already-expensive system actually improves classroom performance and student readiness.

New York City’s elected leadership has signaled continued interest in expanding education and childcare-related spending as well, reinforcing the sense that the default answer in government is to appropriate more rather than fix what is structurally broken. For voters who have lived through years of inflation and budget stress, the concern is not that schools should be starved of resources, but that unchecked spending can become a substitute for reform—especially when the system’s governance makes it difficult to see where dollars truly go.

Inefficiencies: Underenrolled Schools, Mandates, and Fragmented Administration

Several structural issues keep resurfacing in the available reporting. One example is underenrollment: dozens of schools operate far below capacity, including a cited figure of 112 schools with fewer than 150 students. Operating lightly filled buildings can drive up per-student costs for staffing, transportation, and facilities maintenance. When leaders insist on maintaining the same footprint regardless of student counts, families effectively pay for empty seats—money that could otherwise be redirected to academic priorities.

Policy constraints also shape cost and flexibility. The class-size law and other mandates can limit administrators’ ability to adapt staffing models when enrollment shifts. On top of that, New York City’s 32 district structure creates layers of administration that can complicate oversight and blur responsibility when outcomes disappoint. Conservatives tend to see a familiar pattern here: large bureaucracies defend inputs and headcounts, while parents ask for measurable outputs—safe schools, strong basics, and transparent performance data.

What’s Still Missing From the Mississippi/Alabama Comparison

The viral claim driving much of the public anger is that Mississippi and Alabama students outperform New York students at a fraction of the cost. That may or may not be accurate in specific metrics, but the research provided here does not include the underlying dataset, the testing years, or the apples-to-apples cost comparisons needed to verify the headline claim. Without those details, readers should treat sweeping state-to-state performance comparisons as unproven, even if they feel plausible.

Pols pitch extra $1B for NYC schools — even as Mississippi, Alabama students outperform New Yorkers for a fraction of the cost https://t.co/9AWJAoDcth pic.twitter.com/gDP8MXM4XO

— New York Post (@nypost) February 12, 2026

What can be said with confidence, based on the available sources, is that New York City already spends at an extraordinary level and still faces structural problems that money alone doesn’t solve. If policymakers want public buy-in for additional funding, they will need to show reforms that reduce waste, align staffing and facilities with enrollment, and restore trust through transparent reporting. For taxpayers who value limited government and effective institutions, “more” is not a plan unless it comes with enforceable accountability.