New York City spends $42,000 per student per year on public education. That's more than four times what Idaho spends. It's $10,000 more than Washington, D.C. The results are average.
Oh, and the people now running the system think the problem is they haven't spent enough.
Since DSA member Zohran Mamdani won the mayor's office last year, the Democratic Socialists of America have moved from protest signs to policy desks in the nation's largest school system. And according to a new report from the Manhattan Institute, what they're building isn't education reform. It's ideological expansion with a price tag that makes the Green New Deal's proposed $1 trillion look like a down payment.
Jennifer Weber, K-12 Education Policy Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, laid out the core problem in terms even a city councilmember could follow: "DSA-backed policies focus on expanding government programs and providing more resources without creating the conditions that encourage better outcomes." The DSA's flagship education proposal — expanding free public childcare and education to ages two and three — sounds generous until you realize the model. Weber noted that rather than "allowing families to choose among a variety of providers...it expands access only to a government-run option."
No competition. No accountability. Just more government, funded by more taxes, producing more of the same mediocre results that $42,000 per kid already buys.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows NYC students performing at average levels despite per-pupil spending that dwarfs the national figure. New York State is projected to spend over $37,000 per student in 2026. Meanwhile, 90% of studies show public schools improve when faced with competition from charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts. Florida adopted school choice and saw improved test scores and graduation rates. NYC adopted democratic socialism and got a mayor who thinks the answer is expanding the monopoly.
The DSA isn't subtle about what comes next. The party has proposed over $1 trillion in Green New Deal funding nationally. They're running candidates for the November 2026 midterms — Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York's 13th District and Claire Valdez in the 7th — both DSA-backed. They already count Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez among their congressional members. The school system is the staging ground.
Weber put the philosophical stakes plainly: "Schools should teach students HOW to think by exposing them to multiple viewpoints...not tell them what to think!" The watchdog group Defending Education has flagged concerns about critical race theory and intersectionality frameworks being embedded in curricula under DSA-aligned leadership.
"Improvement comes from rewarding success, encouraging responsibility, and holding institutions accountable for results," Weber said. Every word of that sentence is the opposite of what the DSA proposes. Their model rewards compliance, discourages alternatives, and holds no one accountable because accountability implies someone might fail — and failure implies the government program isn't sacred.
The DSA used to be the fringe that mainstream Democrats tolerated at rallies. Now they run the largest city in America and control what millions of children are taught every day. The per-pupil spending will keep climbing. The test scores won't. And when someone points that out, the answer will be the same answer it's always been.
More money. More programs. More government. The results are beside the point. They were never the point.
