TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey Department of Education on Tuesday released the 2025 Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending, an annual report designed to help residents better understand how their local school districts allocate resources.
“This annual spending guide offers a straightforward, transparent look at how districts are investing their resources,” Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmer said. “It provides another useful tool for districts and communities as they review the effectiveness of their programs and make decisions aligned to student needs. The guide also helps support meaningful conversations between residents and local school officials about how budget choices reflect educational priorities.”
For the 2024–2025 school year, the average Budgetary Cost Per Pupil in New Jersey school districts is $21,199. That figure includes districts serving preschool through grade 12, charter schools, county vocational districts and county special services districts. The metric excludes costs that vary widely across districts—such as transportation, debt service and tuition for out-of-district programs—to allow for more meaningful comparisons.
The projected cost per pupil represents an increase of $1,913, or 9.9%, from the prior year’s statewide average actual spending.
The guide groups school districts by size and grade configuration and ranks them in 15 spending categories, including total administrative costs, total classroom instruction, and various staffing indicators such as student-teacher ratios and faculty-to-administrator ratios.
In addition to budgetary spending, the guide provides a broader measure of Total Spending Per Pupil, which incorporates all district expenditures, including transportation for public and nonpublic students, tuition payments for out-of-district placements, school lunch programs supported by student fees, and state-paid pension costs.
The latest statewide Total Spending Per Pupil, based on data from the 2023–2024 school year, is $29,978, an increase of $1,161 (4.0%) from the previous year.
The full reports are available on the Department of Education’s Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending webpage.
