This NJ School District Spends $47K Per Student, See How Yours Compares

You know how much you are paying in property taxes to support your local school district, but do you know how that spending breaks down per student?

New Jersey released its 2025 Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending to give taxpayers information on their district’s spending and how that spending compares to other districts in the state.

The data is “a straightforward, transparent look at how districts are investing their resources,” according to Kevin Dehmer, state Commissioner of Education.

The average budgetary cost per pupil for a New Jersey school district in 2024-25 was $21,199, according to the state Department of Education, an increase of $1,913 or 9.9 percent over the 2023-24 school year. The district with the highest budgetary per-pupil spend is North Wildwood City, which spends $47,001 per student.

The figures are based on actual spending for the school year, but the budgetary figure is not the same as total per pupil spending, because some costs are not comparable from district to district. Some do not have school construction debt or comparable transportation costs, for example, and tuition for out-of-district programs — primarily for special education students — vary significantly because those programs are individualized.

The state also provided the following breakdown of average budgetary per pupil spending for each enrollment group. Elementary school students have lower per-pupil spending than secondary students.

• Kindergarten to 6 (56 districts): $17,153
• K to 8, fewer than 400 (75 districts): $24,059
• K to 8, 401-750 (68 districts): $18,602
• K to 8, more than 750 (73 districts): $20,539
• K to 12, fewer than 1,800 (53 districts): $21,453
• K to 12, 1,800-3,500 (72 districts): $20,408
• K to 12, more than 3,500 (96 districts): $21,302
• Grade 7 or 9 through 12 (45 districts): $21,716
• County Special Services (7 districts): $72,017
• County Vocational (21 districts): $21,169
• Charter/Renaissance schools (89 schools): $20,250

Below is a searchable chart showing the budgetary cost per pupil for each of the 655 districts in New Jersey. It includes the type of district and where the district's spending ranks compared with other districts in its enrollment category. It also includes the spending for the 2024 fiscal year and where that spending ranked.