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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

Mamdani should investigate why NYC spends almost twice as much per student as the city of Zurich, Switzerland (which itself spends an enormous amount on education) but lags behind the U.S. average in reading and math test scores: https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/01/29/naep-scores-sho...

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Isn't Zurich far richer per-capita than NYC? I would think there is more than just what happens in a school that dictates the testing outcomes.

NYC median income is about $80,000, while Zurich is $95,000. But my test-score comparison is between NYC and the U.S. national average. I'm just using Zurich as a data point for how much a rich, expensive non-U.S. city spends on education.

I see that data is correct, but let's zoom in. There are lots of private schools for the richer, and that might help lead to this fact regarding NYC public school students:

> 75.3 percent were economically disadvantaged [0]

75.3% = "if their family participates in specific economic assistance programs or meets distinct low-income thresholds."

[0] https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/reports/nycps-data-at-a...

NYC has approximately several million more students than the city of Zurich.

And several million more immigrants than the entire country of Switzerland.

PER CAPITA, come on now

That's irrelevant. Scale matters when you're discussing costs because costs increase nonlinearly.

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