NJDOE News
For More Information Contact the Public Information Office:For Release: March 19, 2008
Commissioner Davy Announces Release of 2008 Comparative Spending Guide; Calls on Public to Participate in Budget Development Process
Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy today released the 2008 Comparative Spending Guide, an annual statistical report that details local school spending patterns and ranks similar school districts under a variety of spending categories.
"For the past decade, we have produced the Comparative Spending Guide to show the public how their school tax dollars are spent," said Commissioner Davy. "We release the guide at this time of year to stimulate local discussions as school boards present their proposed budgets for public review and comment.
"We hope the guide will again prove to be a useful tool at the local level to determine spending priorities," she said.
The Comparative Spending Guide can be found online at:
The guide provides school personnel and the public with information about a school district’s annual budget. It ranks school districts in 14 of 15 spending categories, such as total classroom instruction or total support services; and in four staffing indicators, such as student-teacher ratios and ratios of faculty to administrative staff.
Each indicator shows cost data for three years on a per pupil basis. Each staffing indicator contains two years of data. The total per pupil cost indicator reflects all spending common to school districts and includes total current expense spending for early childhood education programs, demonstrably effective programs, special education, bilingual education, supplemental instruction, county vocational schools and adult and post-secondary education.
Instances in which spending can differ significantly from one district to the next are not included in the guide. Examples of such instances are transportation, capital and tuition expenditures. In addition, the guide measures the costs to a district of providing regular and special education programs, as well as supplemental programs such as at-risk and limited English proficient (LEP) programs to all students on roll in the district. These costs are not based on resident counts. Please refer to the Introduction and Description section in the guide for a discussion of the specific costs included.
The following are highlights from the new guide:
The Comparative Spending Guide compares school districts of similar size with each other. The groups are: K-6; K-8 (with subgroupings of enrollments from 0-399; 400-750; and more than 750); K-12 (with subgroupings of enrollments from 0-1,799; 1,800 to 3,500; and more than 3,500); grades 7-12 and 9-12; county special services; county vocational schools; and charter schools. Districts are listed alphabetically and are ranked low to high in spending for each of three years, within their subgroups.
