According to the latest US Census Bureau numbers, in the 2007-2008 school year Idaho had the second-lowest per pupil spending in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Every state except for Utah spent more on each student’s public education. What did 48 other states and the District of Columbia receive in exchange for their greater-than-Idaho education spending? Did spending more mean better scores for them? Should Idaho increase per pupil education spending?

We can find the answers by comparing states’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests to per pupil spending. NAEP tests – often called “the nation’s report card” – have been administered since 1969 by the US Department of Education to representative samples of all American fourth-, eighth- and twelfth-graders. They are the only tests comparing all students in the same grade across states and over time.

In 2007, the year for the most recent per pupil spending numbers, only the NAEP test for writing was administered. In 2005, however, American students took the tests for math, reading and science. What does juxtaposing the scores on these core subjects in 2005 to per-pupil spending for each state in the 2004-2005 school year reveal?

Table 1 is arranged alphabetically by state and includes the District of Columbia plus the US national average:

Table 2 is the same information arranged by NAEP score, from highest to lowest:

Table 3 is the same information – for 2005, remember – arranged according to spending from highest to lowest:

Low public education spending is no cause for alarm. On the contrary, we should thank Idaho’s policymakers for their careful stewardship of our hard-earned tax monies. At nearly three times what Idaho paid per pupil, biggest-spending New York came in below us, NAEP-wise. The District of Columbia’s $12,979 per pupil spending – more than twice Idaho’s – bought them the lowest NAEP scores in the country. The twenty-one states with NAEP scores higher than ours all spent much more money than we did. Idahoans got a good deal for the academic results we received.

It is popular to assume per pupil spending is related, somehow, to student academic achievement. The Idaho Education Association is “concerned about our state’s disinvestment (sic) in education.” But it is clear there is no relationship between education spending and education achievement. It makes more sense to argue geography is academic destiny: the states with the top five NAEP scores in 2005 all lie, at least in part, above the 45th Parallel. (OK, not Massachusetts. But it gets really cold there too and heck, there’s always an outlier.) If everyone in Idaho moved north of New Meadows, would all of our students suddenly get smarter?

What a ridiculous idea. Almost as ridiculous as the idea that spending more money on public schools would somehow lead to better student academic outcomes.