Last year, only 12 percent of the District of Columbia public school 8th graders scored at grade-level proficiency in reading, and only seven percent were proficient in math, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, which are administered in every state.

The D.C. students’ performance was worse than that of any of the 50 states, despite the fact that public school spending in the nation’s capital in 2002-03 totaled $16,344 per pupil, the second-highest in the country.

Per-pupil spending ranged from a high of $16,665 in Alaska to a low of $6,387 in Mississippi, with a median of $8,620.

North Carolina’s average of $7,469 per pupil ranked 40th among the 50 states. Twenty-seven percent of its 8th grade students scored proficient in reading, and 32 percent in math. Students in top-spending Alaska scored the same as North Carolina in reading and a slightly lower 29 percent proficient in math.