The Pew Charitable Trusts

The District of Columbia spent $13,317 on average educating each student in its public school system this year, a sum that makes it first in the nation in per-pupil public school spending, a new report showed.

New York ($12,059), Connecticut ($11,773), New Jersey ($11,390) and Massachusetts ($10,772) filled out the top five in average per-pupil spending, according to the annual ranking by the National Education Association, a teachers union with 2.7 million members.

The report, compiled from state education agencies, found that median per-pupil spending rose to $8,208 for this school year a 3.6 percent increase from last year.

Nevada ($6,230), Mississippi ($6,137), Arkansas ($6,005), Arizona ($5,347) and Utah ($5,091) remained at the bottom of the rankings on per-pupil spending for a second year, despite spending increases in all of those states.

Teachers' salaries rose at a rate of 2 percent nationally to an average of $46,726. California had the highest average teacher salary of $58,287 and Connecticut, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and Michigan rounded out the top five in that category.

South Dakota had the lowest average teacher salary of $33,236. Mississippi, North Dakota, Alabama and Oklahoma were also in the bottom five for annual teacher pay.