Do states that spend more on education get better grades?

No matter where you live in the United States, you’d like to know that your children are getting the best education possible. Sadly though, some states place a stronger emphasis on education than others and invest significantly more money in their systems. But does it equal better grades for students?

The National Education Association recently released its annual Rankings and Estimates Report and broke down how much each state spent per enrolled student in 2025, as well as a ton of other information about the country’s education system. Landing at the top of the list was New York, which is spending a little over $37,000 per student. A slight drop from 2024 when the Empire State spent a little over $38,000. Washington, D.C. wasn’t far behind, spending about $34,500 and finishing ranked second for another year.

Check out the full list of the 20 states that spent the most on students last year right here.

(National Education Association)

So, while these states spend the most on education, how do they fare grade-wise? Using the Nation’s Report Card, we can find the answer. The website releases a biannual report that shows how each state performed in various school subjects, particularly Reading and Mathematics.

Using 8th Grade as a control for this, we can see that in the latest 2024 report, New York grades out as exactly average in both Reading (score of 257) and Mathematics (271), being exactly in line with the National Average for each subject. Strangely enough, both grades are lower than the state that spent the least on education per student, Idaho, which graded out at 261 for Reading and 278 for Mathematics.

Looking at the data, it’s kind of a mixed bag. Here’s how the Mathematics grades compare to how much each state spends on education.

Now here’s how the Reading grades shook out.

If you’d like to see how much your state is spending on education, you can read the National Education Association’s full report right here.