The wealthiest New York school districts charge the lowest tax rate. They also spend the most.

An analysis of 448 New York school districts: the wealthiest fifth charge $13.71 per $1,000 and spend $38,881 per student; the poorest charge $14.01 and spend $29,989. Every figure from public state filings.

School tax bills went out across New York at the end of August. For most homeowners it is the largest single line on any bill they receive all year, and it funds one thing: the local school district.

How much you pay per dollar of property is the full-value tax rate — the school tax levy divided by the total market value of everything taxable in the district, expressed per $1,000. Across the 448 New York districts with at least 800 students, the middle rate is $14.65 per $1,000, and the middle district spends $31,721 per student.

Sorting those districts by how much taxable property they hold per student — the standard measure of what a district can raise on its own — produces a pattern that runs opposite to what most people expect. The wealthiest fifth of districts hold 4.9 times as much taxable property per student as the poorest fifth. They charge the lowest tax rate of any group, $13.71 per $1,000 against $14.01. And they spend the most: $38,881 per student against $29,989.

School tax rate, by district property wealth

Poorest fifth
$14.01
Second
$14.9
Middle
$14.8
Fourth
$16.1
Wealthiest fifth
$13.71

Figures are dollars per $1,000 of full property value.

Spending per student, by district property wealth

Poorest fifth
$29,989
Second
$29,160
Middle
$29,051
Fourth
$34,839
Wealthiest fifth
$38,881

Figures are dollars per student.

The pattern is not a straight line. The bottom three groups are close to flat on both measures — they charge within $0.89 of each other per $1,000 and spend within $938 per student of each other, despite very different tax bases. The highest rate of all belongs not to the poorest districts but to the fourth group, at $16.10. What stands apart is the top: the wealthiest districts tax least and spend most.

Where the rate is highest and the spending is not

27 districts, together educating 75,770 students, charge a rate in the state's highest fifth while spending in its lowest two fifths — at or above $17.36 per $1,000, at or below $30,333 per student.

Four of the five highest rates in that group are in a single county, Broome.

Highest school tax rates among districts spending below the state median

Susquehanna Valley Central School District
$23.87
Union-Endicott Central School District
$22.9
Chenango Valley Central School District
$22.76
Maine-Endwell Central School District
$22.36
North Bellmore UFSD
$21.89
Solvay Union Free School District
$20.23
Westhill Central School District
$19.93
Liverpool Central School District
$19.71

Figures are dollars per $1,000 of full property value.

Two homeowners, nearly the same bill

A homeowner with a typical home in Alden Central School District pays about $3,330 in school tax. Their district spends $22,674 per student. A homeowner in Onteora Central School District pays about $3,379 — $49 more — and their district spends $62,999 per student, 2.8 times as much.

Both figures are estimates for a home at the district's median value, and an individual bill depends on that home's assessment and on any STAR exemption. The point is not the two districts in particular. It is that a school tax bill, on its own, tells a homeowner almost nothing about what their district spends.

What these numbers do not show

A higher rate is not evidence that a district is doing anything wrong. A district with less taxable property must charge more per $1,000 to raise the same money — that is arithmetic, not a decision. Two districts can make identical choices and post very different rates.

New York's foundation aid formula is designed to offset exactly this, sending more state money to districts with less property wealth, and the flatness of the bottom three groups suggests it is doing substantial work. How much of the remaining gap the formula closes is not something these filings can answer: this analysis uses district tax levies, full property values and per-student spending, and does not include state aid figures. A full account of why any one district lands where it does would need them.

Per-student spending also counts every dollar a district spends, including costs it does not control — special education placements, transportation across a rural district, pension and health obligations set elsewhere. A higher figure is not automatically more teaching.

How to look up your own district

Every New York district has a page here with its full-value tax rate, its total levy, an estimate of a typical homeowner's bill, and what the district spends per student — each figure linked to the filing it came from. A useful question to ask at a board meeting is how your district's rate compares with its neighbours', and what its property value per student is, since the second explains a good deal of the first.

Tax rates and levies are from the New York State Comptroller's Real Property Tax Levies file for calendar year 2025. Per-student spending is from each district's ESSA financial-transparency filing. Typical-bill estimates use median home values from local assessment rolls, or the Census American Community Survey where a roll is unavailable. Districts with fewer than 800 students are excluded, because a single grade cohort moves their per-student figure too much to compare. This report was generated from public records by the DistrictFacts Data Desk; if you find an error, tell us and we will publish a correction.

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