Arizona continues to have some of the worst per-pupil education spending in the country.
Data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureaushows the state spends, on average, about $10,000 per student — while the national average exceeds $15,000.
Paul Tighe, the executive director of Arizona School Administrators, says he’s not surprised the state is ranked 49th.
“And they have an illustration that shows if Arizona had maintained the same effort as it did in 2008, we would have about $3.4 billion dollars more going into education in this state currently," Tighe said, referencing an Education Law Center study.
Tighe says the downward trend began back in the 1970s.
States spending least per student
Utah: $9,552
Idaho: $9,670
Arizona: $10,315
Oklahoma: $10,890
Mississippi: $10,984
States spending most per student
New York: $29,873
District of Columbia: $27,425
New Jersey: $25,099
Vermont: $24,608
Connecticut: $24,453
