Shrewsbury Residents Pay More for Public Education

When it comes to sending students to Red Bank Regional, a Little Silver high school fed by upwards of a dozen sending districts, some municipalities just have to pay a little bit more.

In the case of Shrewsbury, paying a little bit more means more than any other municipality.

At the borough’s council meeting Monday night, Councilman Pete Meyer discussed Red Bank Regional’s ongoing budget hearings as well as its proposed 1.4 percent tax increase for Shrewsbury residents.

Though a tax increase of some kind is something most Red Bank Regional sending districts are likely to share, it’s the cost per pupil – a figure that fluctuates significantly by town – that has Meyer questioning the budget.

According to figures presented at the meeting, the cost of sending a single Shrewsbury student to high school is $24,600. Nearby towns like Red Bank and Little Silver pay less than $22,000 per student.

Red Bank Regional’s administration identifies the cost of educating each of its students at approximately $18,000.

How the per-pupil figure is arrived at isn’t up for much debate. The rate is based on a town’s property valuation. Shrewsbury, which sends 198 students to Red Bank Regional, has an assessed valuation of $791 million. This total is down from last year’s total of $806 million.

Red Bank Regional has 1114 students.

What concerns Meyer, partially, is just how much others are paying.

The high school and its performing arts school attract students from all over the county and beyond, as far as Brick Township in Ocean County and Orange in Essex County. The cost per student for those pupils – approximately 200 of them attend the high school is just $12,000.

Meyer believes other municipalities have been left to pick up the slack.

Red Bank Regional’s Board of Education approved a tentative budget of a little more than $26 million for the 2011-12 school year. Approximately $4.67 million will be raised through Shrewsbury’s tax levy. If the budget is approved, borough residents will pay $1.02 per $100 of assessed property value.

Little Silver, Shrewsbury and Red Bank residents will have the opportunity to vote on the budget during April board of education elections.