John Migueis is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the administrator of NJ21st.com, a platform dedicated to analyzing and reporting on municipal, education, and state issues affecting New Jersey’s 21st district. This is Part 2 of a three-part series on school spending and proficiency rates in seven New Jersey cities. Part 1 is here.

As the perception of “New Jersey has great schools” gives way to a more sobering reality—”your kids might achieve proficiency in math if you can afford tutors”—I’ve been analyzing school spending in seven of the state’s urban school districts. This information is based on the NJ Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending and continues to focus on the seven districts (Newark, Camden, Jersey City, Union City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Trenton) covered in my last article.

The table below shows the average year to year percentage increase in instructional spending across thirteen categories from 2018-2019 through 2023-2024 on the 7-City District Dashboard as reported by the State Department of Education.

Notes:

• Total Equipment expenditure shows the highest average increase (37.21%) across all districts, with Union City having a dramatic increase of 121.55%. In contrast, Elizabeth City shows a significant decrease of -32.66% in this category. Union City saw its biggest spike during COVID-19 closures, which may be related to the costs of distance-learning.
• Food Services is the only category with a negative average percentage change (-9.09%).
• Extracurricular Costs also saw an average increase of 14.38%.
• Newark shows the highest increase in Total Classroom Instruction and Total Support Services.
• Trenton has the highest increase in Administrative Costs and Operations & Maintenance.
• Jersey City has the highest increase in Extracurricular Costs.
• Camden and Newark both show decreases in Total Food Services.
• Elizabeth has the lowest Equipment expenditure increase.

The table below demonstrates student to teacher ratio for each district across the same time period.

Notes:

Camden shows a consistent increase in the ratio of students to teachers, from 14.7 in 2019 to 18.1 in 2024. This suggests that the district is experiencing either an increase in student enrollment or a reduction in the number of teachers.

The table below demonstrates teacher to administration ratios for each district across the same time period.

Notes:

• Elizabeth consistently has the highest faculty-to-administration ratio across all years. The ratio increases steadily, from 26 in 2019 to 30.6 in 2024, suggesting a growing faculty size relative to administration or a reduction in administrative roles.

• Newark consistently has the lowest faculty-to-administration ratio, starting at 8.7 in 2019 and declining to 7.1 in 2024. This could indicate a relatively larger proportion of administrative staff. There was a strange difference in the number reported for 2023 and 2024, with the former reporting an 18 to 1 ratio and the latter retroactively reporting 7 to 1. As the 2024 data is more current and consistent with the other years, I went with that and followed up with an email to Newark Public Schools, asking them to verify the numbers connected to this indicator due to how different they are from other districts as well as the discrepancy. The district has not responded to a request for comment.
• Union City and Trenton Public School District show relatively stable trends, with slight decreases. For example, Union City’s ratio remains around 11-13, while Trenton declines from 18.5 in 2019 to 14.7 in 2024.

To look at the raw data behind these graphs you can open and download this table.