Spending on public education in Virginia is falling behind the rest of the country.
$16,000. That's what Virginia spends per pupil, according to the Census Bureau. Relative to the rest of the South, that's pretty good. But it’s below average for the Midwest, and it's below average for the western states and it's way below average for the Northeast. Chad Stewart at the Virginia Education Association says the numbers show the Commonwealth is falling behind.
"Virginia's consistently close to the top 10 for median and average income in the country," Stewart says. "And we're often in the bottom 15 states for state spending per student."
Levi Goren at the Commonwealth Institute says Virginia is still digging out of the hole created by the Great Recession almost 20 years ago.
"Virginia's legislature has made some progress in the last couple years in better supporting our schools," Goren says. "But we were just so far behind that our students are not getting the resources they need to succeed, and that shows in the fact that we're well below our peers in most of the rest of the country."
New York spends about twice as much as Virginia per pupil, and the District of Columbia spends the most – more than $31,000 per pupil each year.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
