See How Much Your NJ School District Spends Per Student: New Data

NEW JERSEY — School spending per pupil varies widely in New Jersey, state data shows — with one district budgeting about $10,000 per pupil last school year and another planning to spend close to $100,000 per student.

Budgeted amounts can also vary widely from what the district actually spends per student, an average $9,000 difference, according to the most recent numbers.

The newly-released Taxpayer’s Guide to Education Spending includes data on teacher and administrator salaries, student-teacher ratios, classroom spending, and more. After taking a look at teacher salaries and administrator salaries, Patch compared how much money each New Jersey school district budgeted per pupil in 2023/24.

These amounts factor in salaries for teachers, administrators, and support staff, along with facilities maintenance, supplies, extracurricular activities and other basics costs that public school districts pay — divided by the number of students in the district.

Data on the actual amount that each district spent is only available through 2022/23, but we have included it in one of the charts below for comparison. That takes into account

Overall, the median amount that New Jersey school districts planned to spend in 2023/24 was $19,990 per pupil. That has increased 10 percent over the last three school years, from $17,431 in 2021/22.

The median budget per pupil for schools in County Special Services Districts was $60,264 in 2023/24, an 8 percent increase from 2021/22. Bergen County Special Services planned to spend more than $97,000 per student last year, and actually spent $115,269 per pupil in 2022/23.

Charter schools had the lowest budgeted spending of district groups, at $17,995 (up from $14,224 in 2021/22). They were also among the lowest in actual spending for the 2022/23 year.

Budgeted per-pupil spending by district

Take a look at budgeted spending by district in the table below. To give a wider view of the breakdown, we've included information on district groups (what grades they serve, or if it's a vocational school district, charter school, etc.), where each district ranks among its and a comparison of what the budgeted cost per pupil was in 2021/22 and 2022/23. Enrollment for 2023/24 is also included.

The table is sorted by district group, starting with K-6 and ending with charter schools. You may search the table for your district, arrange the table by cost, or sort it alphabetically.

Click here if you cannot see the table above.

Actual per-pupil spending by district

In terms of how much money districts actually spent, available data only goes up to 2022/23. As mentioned above, the Bergen County Special Services District had the highest per-pupil spending in that year for its 591 students. The Mercer County Special Services District also paid more than $100,300 per student in 2022/23, and budgeted just $77,625.

This table is sorted alphabetically by district name. You may search the table for your district, arrange the table by cost, or sort it by county. Non-operating districts are not included in the table.

Click here if you cannot see the table above.

Residents can view the entire Taxpayers’ Guide for 2024 here, and see a user manual for how to interpret the data here.

Related articles:

• Highest-Paying NJ Schools: See Teacher Salaries By District
  
• NJ Districts With Highest-Paid School Administrators: See New Data