Almost half of New York City public schools have nearly half of their students failing, even though the Big Apple’s public school system spends more than double the national average per student, a new report shows.
Fewer than half of the students passed math, reading, or both on state exams in over 900 of the city’s public schools in 2025, a report by the Success Academy charter school network reveals. The city spent $36,293 on each student in 2024, more than double the national average of $17,619 per student.
These failing schools educate 43% of New York City’s public school students, according to Success Academy’s report. In over 500 of these public schools, a majority of students failed both math and reading on state exams in 2025. This comes even after the city spent $40 billion on education in 2024.
“What is missing is not money. What is missing is honesty — honest measurement, honest reporting, and honest consequences when schools consistently fail,” the report, titled “By Any Honest Measure,” stated.
New York City Public Schools did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Even though the students are not able to pass the state exams, they continue to move through the school systems because “New York City’s grading system is designed to ensure that most students pass their courses regardless of whether they have mastered the material,” according to the report. The numbers of students attending failing schools climb as they progress, with 34% of elementary students attending a failing school, 49% of middle school students, and 62% of high school students in the 2024-2025 school year.
“These are not schools teetering at the edge of success,” the report stated. “They are schools that have been massively failing — persistently, systemically, and at staggering public expense — for years, and in many cases for decades.”
The New York City Chancellor’s Office rated 98% of teachers as effective or highly effective from 2022-2023, the report notes.
With teachers rated so highly, and 43% of students attending a school “where more than half of students are failing math or reading — or both — the only logical conclusion is that the evaluation system is not measuring what it claims to measure,” the report notes.
“The resulting analysis is the most complete accounting of school failure in New York City ever assembled — not because the underlying data was secret, but because the public entities responsible for accountability chose, year after year, not to look at it whole,” the report said.
(DCNF)
