Buffalo area schools spend about $28,000 per student

BUFFALO, NY — Thirty-nine school budgets totaling $4 billion were recently approved in Erie and Niagara counties for the upcoming school year. The money will educate approximately 138,000 public school students in grades K-12.

Individual budgets range from a low of $17.7 million in North Collins, the smallest school district, with just 564 students, to a high of nearly $1 billion in the largest district, the public schools of Buffalo, with some 30,000 students. (Buffalo-area charter schools, which have some 12,000 students, are not included in this analysis.)

We looked at spending per student – ​​the total budget divided by enrollment. A few districts spend less than $24,000 per student, a few spend more than $33,000, and the majority fall somewhere in between. The average is $28,135 per student. You can find out more on the Investigative Post website.