Screencap of YouTube video.
Douglas Murray, an investigative journalist and the author of The Strange Death of Europe and The War on the West, sat down with PragerU CEO Marissa Streit to discuss a variety of topics, including the dismal state of education in the Unites States.
Murray, an outspoken British conservative, told Streit, “I mean, I say this as a great lover of America, but the education system in this country is shocking. And it’s not to do with money. It’s not to do with a lack of resources.”
“If in New York State, for instance, almost $30,000 is allocated per pupil per year for their education, that’s a hell of a lot of money.”
Streit added, “Yeah, it’s not money, it’s monsters. It’s the other end.”
Murray continued, “Exactly. I mean, it is. And it’s just shocking. The unions, these people just have not done their job. They have so woefully underperformed.”
“And when you have the levels of illiteracy and numeracy in a society like this. It’s shocking.”
“The world’s number one economy, a superpower, should be able to make sure that it’s not like in a lot of areas 50% of K-12 students just don’t have basic literacy or numeracy.”
Watch:
Our kids are graduating with shocking levels of illiteracy and poor math skills. @DouglasKMurray is right, it’s not about money. It’s the unions that have continuously robbed our students and held our schools hostage. Watch here https://t.co/lnW5YVl1fk pic.twitter.com/nVTd8J3wz4
— Marissa Streit (@marissastreit) April 15, 2026
According to The Citizens Budget Commission (CBC), New York State has the highest per-pupil spending in the nation for over 20 years running.
For the 2024–25 school year, the state was projected to spend approximately $36,293 per student (total expenditures including local, state, and federal funds). This is more than double the national average of roughly $17,000–$18,000. Earlier data for 2023 showed New York at about $36,976 per pupil.
Yet according to assessments like the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Nation’s Report Card, New York students are not achieving grade-level mastery in core subjects at high rates, despite the massive investment.
2024 NAEP results for NY State overall showed:
Grade 4 Reading: 31% proficient or above.
Grade 4 Math: 37% proficient or above.
Grade 8 Reading: 31% proficient or above.
Grade 8 Math: 26% proficient or above.
Nationally, proficiency hovers around 30–39% in these categories, so New York is average-to-below-average despite top spending, and scores have shown little sustained improvement over decades, even as costs soared.
New York City students fare even worse.
New York City public schools, the nation’s largest district, spend even more than the New York state average.
According to The New York Post, for the 2025–26 school year, the NYC Department of Education is projected to spend a record $42,168 per student—the highest in the country—on a total budget of $44.6 billion.
2024 NAEP results for NYC showed:
Grade 4 Reading: 28% proficient.
Grade 4 Math: 33% proficient.
Grade 8 Reading: 29% proficient.
Grade 8 Math: 23% proficient.
Watch the entire interview at PragerU here.
The post British Conservative Douglas Murray on the Failure of the US Education System (Video) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.