Schools In Long Valley Spend More Per Pupil Than Most Of NJ

LONG VALLEY, NJ — Last school year, school districts in New Jersey budgeted an average of $18,208 per student. According to New Jersey Department of Education data, the Washington Township School District budgeted about $2,000 more.

According to the data, Washington Township spends $20,132 per pupil.

The figures come from the state's 2022 Taxpayers' Guide to Education, which shows the amounts spent and budgeted per student by districts and schools.

The guide also includes information on how much money districts have spent or budgeted for specific categories like supplies, salaries and benefits, lunch programs, and support services.

Patch organized the data by type of district/school and ranked them by how much they budgeted per pupil in the 2021-22 school year.

Read more: NJ Schools Spend $18K Per Student On Average: How Much Your Kid Gets

The taxpayer's guide separates school districts into 11 different operating categories based on enrollment size, grades served and other classifications. Washington Township is in a group of 73 districts that serve grades K-8 and has more than 750 students.

Washington Township's budgeting of $20,132 per student last school year ranked 24th in the group. Franklin Lakes School District topped the category at $28,062 per pupil, while Fairview Borough Public Schools budgeted the least — $10,109 per student.

Property values, tax revenues, financial constraints, and political conditions all influence per-student spending in US public schools. So a higher dollar figure does not always imply that a school district spends too much or values its students more, and a lower figure does not always imply stinginess or efficiency.

The figures are primarily intended to assist the public in understanding educational spending in their community and state.

See the full 2022 Taxpayers' Guide to Education Spending, plus information on school spending from past years.

With reporting from Josh Bakan, Patch Staff