The New Jersey Department of Education (Department) recently released the 2023 Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending to support New Jerseyans in understanding spending practices of school districts across the state and to further support transparency in taxpayer spending.
“This is the 25th year of the Taxpayers Guide to Education Spending,” said Acting Commissioner of Education Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan.
About two dozen operating districts spent less than $20,000 per pupil; all were either charter schools or vocational districts, according to the report.
The Vineland Public Charter School in Cumberland County was the only one that spent less than $15,000 per pupil.
Edison was the lowest-spending comprehensive K-12 district, with close to 17,000 students and a per-pupil total of close to $22,000.
In addition to typical operating expenses for instruction and administration, the total cost per pupil also includes expenditures that not every district may have. These include pension payments made by the state, tuition and residential costs, transportation, certain interest payments and legal judgments.
Spending per pupil in New Jersey varies widely, with as much as $100,000 separating the lowest- and highest-cost districts when it comes to individual students, according to the latest accounting from the state Department of Education.
The Taxpayer’s Guide to Education Spending also provides a measure of “Total Spending Per Pupil,” which includes the Budgetary Cost Per Pupil, plus all other expenditures, including tuition payments for students sent out of district, lunch programs covered by student fees, transportation for public and nonpublic students, and pension payments made by the state. The latest available Total Spending Per Pupil, which is for the 2021-2022 school year, is $27,486, an increase of $2,982 (12.2 percent) from the prior year.
