Wide Range of Spending in N.J. Schools, Data Show

Anyone who thinks that more money, by itself, will solve the problem of lousy schools needs look no further than New Jersey's experience to see what nonsense this is.  Newark is now spending $17,914 per pupil!

The huge range in spending among the state’s 615 school districts is starkly laid out in the 2007 Comparative Spending Guide, which showed an average increase in spending per student of 3.1 percent over last year. The release of the annual survey comes less than a month before state residents are scheduled to vote on local school-district budgets for the coming year.

A searchable table of district-by-district figures is available here.The disparity in spending has prompted renewed calls from school officials and parents for an overhaul of the state’s school financing system, which critics say has shortchanged many districts while directing the bulk of state aid to 31 poor urban areas, identified as “Abbott districts” under a landmark court decision. State legislators have been working on a new state aid formula, but their efforts appear to have stalled in recent weeks.

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Wide Range of Spending in N.J. Schools, Data Show

By WINNIE HU and FORD FESSENDEN

Published: March 23, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/nyregion/23cnd-schools.html

With an average class size of nine, the tiny Sea Isle City school district on the Jersey Shore is spending $33,805 for each of its 90 students this school year, or nearly three times the statewide average of $12,098 a student, according to figures released this morning by the New Jersey Department of Education.