Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Personal Income, and National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data. Adjusted to 2016 dollars.
In this chart, the horizontal axis shows per capital income, and the vertical axis shows per student spending. High-income, high-spending states like New York are in the upper right, with low-income, low-spending states like Utah in the lower left. California used to consistently be in the upper right, with other high-income, high-spending states like New York. But in the 1990s, the state slowed its investment in education, as did Texas.
Note: The volatile movement of Alaska in the 1970s and '80s reflects the boom-and-bust revenue from the oil industry.
Chart by John Osborn D'Agostino. Updated by Daniel J. Willis, Justin Allen and Yuxuan Xie
Note: Each year in the charts and graphs refers to both the calendar year and the fiscal year. Thus, 2013 incorporated data from the fiscal year 2013-14 (July 1 through June 30) as well as the calendar year 2013.