Lowest-spending Virginia school districts surpass top spenders in some subjects

(The Center Square) — Recent data on school district spending gathered by the Virginia Public Access Project appear to support the conclusion of a late-February Reason Foundation study assessing the relationship between state K-12 education spending and student outcomes.

The foundation concluded that increased spending does not always correlate with higher test scores, and less spending doesn’t always mean poorer outcomes.

Some reading, math and science Standards of Learning pass rates pulled from the top-spending school districts in Virginia and districts that spend less indicate there isn’t a strict correlation between spending and student outcomes.

Based on recent fiscal data and Standards of Learning pass rates from the past two school years, in some subjects, students from the five lowest-spending school districts outperformed students from the five highest-spending school districts; in others, they were within 2% of the highest-spending schools’ pass rates.

For fiscal year 2023, the five Virginia school districts with the highest per-pupil instructional spending were Arlington, Highland and Surry counties and the cities of Charlottesville and Falls Church. For context, Arlington and Falls Church are located in the most expensive part of the commonwealth, where the median income is over $132,000, according to GO Virginia.

These five spent between approximately $16,550 and $19,500 per student in fiscal year 2023.

The five school districts with the lowest per-pupil instructional spending were the cities of Powhatan and Radford and Buchanan, New Kent and Tazewell counties. Buchanan and Tazewell counties are in regions of the commonwealth with a median income of $34,234; the others are regions with median incomes of about $51,500.

These five spent between approximately $8,650 and $9,515 per student in fiscal year 2023.

For the 2022-23 school year, about 70.4% of 5th grade students from these districts passed the science Standards of Learning test, compared to 67.4% from the highest-spending districts. Eighth graders from these districts also just surpassed the others’ pass rate for math – 67.4% to 67%.

For 4th-grade reading and math, and 8th-grade reading and science, the pass rates of the lowest-spending school districts were within 2% of those of the highest-spending districts.

For the 2023-24 school year, 79.2% of 4th graders from the lowest-spending schools passed the reading SOL test, 74.8% from the highest-spending schools, and 77% to 73.8% for 4th-grade math. Students from the highest-spending schools outperformed the other students in 5th grade science and 8th-grade reading, science and math, with the greatest difference in 8th-grade reading and science – 81.6% to 73.2% and 76.4% to 66%, respectively.

In the same school year, the lowest-spending schools on average also outperformed school districts in Lexington and Roanoke, and Essex and Nelson counties, which spent an average of just over $14,000 per pupil on instructional spending, and school districts in Manassas Park, Newport News, Alleghany-Highlands, Martinsville and Henry County, which spent an average of over $11,700 per pupil.