These are the most cost-efficient school districts in NJ — and they’re still hurting

🍎 New Jersey 101.5 ranks top 30 most efficient NJ school districts

🍎 NJ forces 2 efficient Ocean County districts to adopt budget holes

🍎 Less efficient schools get millions in state aid

TOMS RIVER — The state is forcing a school district that already has one of the tightest belts in New Jersey to suffer through massive budget cuts.

When it comes to spending per pupil, Toms River is the second most efficient district of its size and the fourth most efficient district in New Jersey out of around 600.

According to data analyzed by New Jersey 101.5, the Toms River Regional School District's budgetary spending per pupil in the 2022-2023 school year was $14,573.

New Jersey schools spent an average of $19,164 per student that year.

Despite spending nearly the least per student in the state, the Department of Education is forcing Toms River to spend even less.

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New Jersey forces 2 Ocean County school districts to adopt budget cuts

A state monitor last week overrode local Toms River and Jackson Township school officials' decisions to veto state budgets that called for millions in cuts.

District officials failed to meet their "most basic and fundamental responsibilities" by not passing the budgets, according to a statement from the DOE last Wednesday.

"Our action today is compelled so as to provide a balanced budget for both districts, ensuring that the failure by these boards of education to meet their budget adoption obligations does not impact the students in their respective districts," the DOE said.

While the state said it doesn't want students impacted by a failure to pass the budgets, there was no word on how what was in those budgets would affect students.

How do budget cuts impact Toms River, Jackson?

In Jackson Township, the district must sell Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School and cut 70 staff to offset an $18 million hole. Students and teachers will be moved two miles away to Crawford-Rodriguez Elementary School.

Jackson ranks 20th out of 95 similar districts, spending $16,746 per student.

Toms River school board officials said in a joint statement that state aid has been cut by $137 million in the last ten years, and the state is forcing the district to impose a 9.9% tax increase on its residents to offset the most recent cuts.

RELATED: Toms River, NJ sues state to regain school funding

The budget that New Jersey is imposing on Toms River is forcing the district to look at liquidating assets including the main district office and the transportation yard for school buses. And a shortfall of over $12 million remains, according to Superintendent Mike Citta.

Where is NJ state aid going?

Meantime, Newark schools spent $21,832 per student in the 2022-2023 school year, ranking 84th in efficiency out of 95 similar school districts. Budgetary spending increased to $24,253 per student for the most recent school year.

To support the rising cost per student, Newark schools get an additional $101.1 million in state funding for the 2025 fiscal year. That boosts the district's budget to over $1.25 billion — more than 80% of which comes from state aid.

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