Here’s The Best School District In New Jersey: Report

MOUNTAIN LAKES, NJ — A new report ranks the best school district in New Jersey, and the answer might surprise you. The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In New Jersey, Mountain Lakes Borough School District in Morris County topped the list. The district has 1,551 students and spends $23,860 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 100 percent and 87.3 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• child poverty
• spending per student
• graduation rate
• teachers per student
• percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

In Morris County, which includes that school district, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $102,798 — much higher than the national average of $55,322. Furthermore, the poverty rate in Morris County was just 5.4 percent compared to the national average of 12.7 percent.

The nationwide rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found New Jersey ranked second in the country for best schools.
Here’s a breakdown of schools in New Jersey, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 90.1 percent (2nd)
• Public school spending: $16,337 per pupil (6th)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 46.2 percent (math) 40.6 percent (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 38.6 percent (4th)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 60 percent (4th)

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.
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