Students writing essays. Credit: iStock/Getty Images/Rubberball

On the surface, it seems the United States spends a lot on public education — more per student than all but a few countries.

Nationwide, the U.S. spends $20,387 per student, fourth most in the world. Only Luxembourg, Norway and Austria — small countries with populations under 10 million — invest more.

Total public-education spending is 5.59 percent of our gross domestic product, compared with an average of 4.61% of GDP in the 66 other North American and European nations.

However, as with all analysis, this superficial view distorts the key question of whether we spend enough to educate our young people. The truth? We spend more than enough in some wealthy enclaves, and far too little in the far more numerous poor school districts nationwide, concentrated in rural areas and impoverished urban centers.

True to our federalist system of government, you need to look at education spending in each state. And because education spending is funded mainly by local property taxes in almost every state, this view shifts the focus from education priorities to real estate values.

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Among the 10 states plus the District of Columbia that spend the most per pupil, six have the highest median residential property values: Hawaii, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. And most states that skimp on education funding, with Mississippi and Oklahoma in the bottom five, have relatively low home prices.

The spending gaps among school districts within each state are even more glaring. The biggest disparity is in New York, where rich districts in Westchester County and on Long Island spend $75,000 per student — three times more than poor urban districts and poor rural districts in upstate New York and the Adirondacks.