from u/Automatic_Forever_43 It's said that we spend approximately $30,000+ annually on each student in the JC School system. If correct, it strikes me that there's a big disconnect between what we spend and the quality of the education the students receive, despite the efforts of very capable teachers and administrators. Outside of the educational product, the infrastructure within the schools is old, antiquated and in disrepair. When this issue is raised, there's typically a deflection to the standouts, the Blue Ribbon schools, in our JC system. Looking at the school system on the whole, not the outliers, how do we ensure that the revenue brought in to the school system is spent on the in class room experience getting our kids ready for college or trade schools? Where are the funds going today, what's the distribution of capital allocation, and would it be better to have the school budget as part of the city budget, instead of a stand alone? Thanks.

The $30,000+ price tag per student is quite alarming. Even Newark (a district comparable in student enrollment to Jersey City) is spending approx $26,000 per student. I do not fault our very capable teachers for this. The schools themselves are old and much is in disrepair at several locations. This contributes to an environment that is not conducive to learning for our students and poor work conditions for our teachers and staff. I also want to stress that Jersey City has an education equity problem. The schools in Jersey City are far from being equal. The district needs to do a much better job of making sure that ALL children in Jersey City can get the same education. Specifically for the schools in the more impoverished areas of the city. These neighborhoods have suffered through much neglect as far as the attention that these schools receive.

The question that you ask is very relevant and I think the best way to ensure that the money makes its way to our students is to hire a Budget Officer for the administration. It is the only way to guarantee transparency regarding where the $973 million dollars is going. Then we could better see how this budget is helping our students prepare for college and what is being done to help raise our students' scores in Math and Science for example. I don’t, however, believe that the school budget should be mixed in with the city budget. I worry that would actually cause more problems as far as transparency is concerned.