New NJ Family column: Advocating for your Special Needs Child
April 2, 2015Diegnan/Jasey Charter Moratorium Bill Will Hurt Thousands of Needy Students
April 4, 2015QOD: How much does N.J. spend per child per year?
From today’s NJ Spotlight column:
Statewide, New Jersey’s public schools are creeping ever closer to the $20,000 mark, with an average in 2013-2014 of $19,211 per student, a 1.6 percent increase from 2012-2013…
Among nonspecialized districts [those that don’t serve kids with special needs], the outliers haven’t much changed either. The tiny one-school Avalon district rose to $48,835 for each of its 99 students, followed by Stone Harbor at $37,837 apiece for its 96 students.
Among K-12 districts, two came in above $30,000 per pupil: Asbury Park at $33,109, and Keansburg at $30,290.
The list of lowest-spending schools, according to the state’s math, is dominated by charter schools. By law receiving no more than 90 percent of a district’s per-pupil amounts, 27 of the charters were listed at below $15,000 per pupil last year.
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It’s worth noting that of the districts that spend below $15,000 a year, only one is a Bacon district (Hammonton).
East Newark $13,110
Guttenberg $12,914.
East Greenwich $13,884
Bellmawr $14,498
Rockaway $13,770
Hammonton $14,384
Berlin Boro $14,819
Harrison (Gloucester) $14,297
Fair Haven $14,793
South River, $14,524
The other Bacons are above $15,000. Lakewood, Egg Harbor City, and Woodbine are above $20,000.
This is yet more evidence that the premise of the Bacon lawsuit is mistaken. The Bacon districts are themselves diverse financially and some of them should get more aid (like Hammonton), but as a group they are neither the most underaided nor underfunded in New Jersey. If any districts need special relief it is not the districts the Education Law Center is representing.