Report on the Cost of Education

Executive Summary

The following report was prepared by the New Jersey Department of Education (the Department) and Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates, Inc. (APA), a nationally recognized education consulting firm with more than 20 years experience in education policy and school finance. The report describes work undertaken by staff from both organizations over the past several years.

The primary purpose of this report is to calculate the costs New Jersey school districts face in meeting state performance and accountability standards. Costs addressed include:

1. A per-student “base” cost (which reflects only the cost of serving students with no special needs); and 2. Adjustments to the base cost that reflect the added cost of serving special need students (including special education students, at-risk students and English language learners).

To identify these costs, the report used two nationally recognized study approaches. The Department weighed the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and then selected one – the Professional Judgment Panel (PJP) approach – whose results form the basis of the report’s findings. The tables below identify the median base cost and added cost weights identified using the PJP approach.

These costs reflect the price of putting resources into schools and districts that panels of educators from across the state say are needed for students to meet New Jersey’s academic performance expectations. It is critical to note, however, that panelists only identified a set of resources to be used in a series of hypothetical school scenarios and did not specifically examine any existing school or district in the state. It is therefore not appropriate to suggest that any specific resources or programs identified by the panels should be applied in all New Jersey schools. Nor can the report be used to determine which portion of these resources should be paid for at the state or local level.

Instead, the panel recommendations are perhaps best viewed simply in terms of identifying an overall level of funds which should be available to purchase personnel, resources, and programs as individual school or district leaders see fit. The advantage of such an approach is that it gives the flexibility to educators to decide how best to meet the specific needs of their students. These are the professionals who: 1) work with children in classrooms on a daily basis; 2) have the experience and training to make the best decisions possible on the types of resources needed for students to meet state standards; and 3) have the greatest understanding of the unique characteristics of their district and student population that might warrant a different way of deploying resources. As shown in the tables below, the process used identified a base cost and added weights for students with special needs in both K–8 and K–12 districts. The base cost shown below is only a median cost.

To see full report please go to:
http://www.state.nj.us/njded/news/2006/report.pdf
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