Hear The Issues - Political Articles and Commentary: Education & Funding

With the spending per pupil in elementary and high schools varying greatly from state to state, an interesting question to ask is whether or not spending more money on students results in higher test scores. Here, we've compared the amount spent per student in each state to the percentage of students in that state who are meeting the standards put in place by the No Child Left Behind Act.

State	Pupil Spending Rank	% Passing
Alaska	1	59
Alabama	2	23
Vermont	3	87
West Virginia	4	70
New York	5	68
Delaware	6	75
Rhode Island	7	n/a
Connecticut	8	81
Wisconsin	9	94
Wyoming	10	92
Indiana	11	76
Oregon	12	70
Nebraska	13	n/a
Michigan	14	73
Pennsylvania	15	81
Massachusetts	16	73
Ohio	17	83
New Jersey	18	54
Maine	19	73
Georgia	20	79
Iowa	21	92
Minnesota	22	66
South Carolina	23	56
Montana	24	n/a
Kansas	25	93
Maryland	26	79
Virginia	27	73
New Mexico	28	68
New Hampshire	29	73
South Dakota	30	78
Illinois	31	n/a
Texas	32	n/a
North Dakota	33	84
Kentucky	34	76
North Carolina	35	71
Louisiana	36	92
Washington	37	82
Missouri	38	77
Oklahoma	39	n/a
Hawaii	40	52
Arkansas	41	71
Florida	42	23
Nevada	43	63
Colorado	44	79
Idaho	45	82
California	46	64
Mississippi	47	76
Tennessee	48	86
Arizona	49	82
Utah	50	82

So, the states are ranked by how much money is spent per pupil in public elementary and high schools, with Alaska spending the most, and Utah spending the least. The third column show the percentage of students that passed the nationwide standards currently in place. It's also important to note that scores are unavailable for Rhode Island, Nebraska, Montana, Illinois, Texas, and Oklahoma. Let's see if we can answer whether the states that spend more money have more students passing:

--Average % passing for the 25 states that spend the most: 73.55%

--Average % passing for the 25 states that spend the least: 73.32%

When splitting up the states into a top and bottom half, there is essentially no difference in scores. Now we'll look at scores if we divide the states into four groups:

--Average score for group 1: 72.27%

--Average score for group 2: 74.82%

--Average score for group 3: 77.6%

--Average score for group 4: 69.75%

Even when breaking the states down into four groups according to how much money is spent per student, there is still no significant different between the first three groups (in fact, scores went up as spending went down), and scores went down slightly for the bottom fourth.

Based on these data, it seems there is no correlation between the amount that is spent on students and how many students pass the tests put in place by the No Child Left Behind Act.

What about scores compared to how much teachers are paid?

Data Sources:

Per Pupil Spending - Stateline
Test Scores - Pew Research State of the States 2005

Related Links:

Education and Funding

Compiled by David Pakman