Who gets the most brains for the buck? Mississippi, Texas and Florida

Money matters in education, writes Chad Aldeman, but how the money is spent matters more.

New York spent $33,970 per student in 2022, according to the Education Law Center's Making the Grade report, double the national average. (The report adjusts for regional labor market costs.) Results were meh. New York's fourth-grades turned in below-average scores in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP), the “Nation’s Report Card.”

Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut, also big spenders, got weak results, writes Aldeman, who charted the Urban Institute's data, which is adjusted for demographics.

Fourth-graders are learning a lot more math in Texas, Florida and Mississippi, which spend less than the national average, his chart shows.

Spending more on schools improves test scores and raises the college-going rate, according to the best research, Aldeman writes. But the gains are small.

The Mountain West "probably could see real gains from higher spending," he writes, while other states, especially in the Northeast, should think more about cost effectiveness.

Everybody can learn from Mississippi, which raised funding only modestly and saw strong gains in reading, writes Aldeman. Starting in 2013, Mississippi adopted a set of initiatives, including "new curricular materials, a muscular school accountability system focused on the students who are the furthest behind and a third grade reading requirement that brought greater attention to children who struggle with the basics."