Check out my post at NewsWorks:
New Jerseyans love to complain about their school taxes – and who can blame us?
Our crazy quilt of overbred school districts leads to inefficiency and redundancy. Fifty years of Abbott Supreme Court rulings has led to embarrassments like the $25,000 annual cost per pupil in Asbury Park Public Schools, possibly the highest in the nation.
One of Gov. Christie’s favorite soundbites regards the long-troubled Newark Public Schools, where more than half the students drop out and annual cost per pupil is a little south of $20K.
(For context, average cost per pupil in America is about $10,259.)
But dirges to fiscal profligacy tell only part of the narrative of the NJ public education system. In fact, there are a number of school districts, particularly in South Jersey, that struggle to cover basic costs
Read the rest here.
