You might think that New Jersey's richest school districts - ie, highest resource - would be places like Millburn, Mountain Lakes, Chatham, or Princeton, but this is not correct.
Socioeconomically-high districts like the ones above tend to have large student populations that dilute their resources. These wealthy suburbs are still quite strong in tax base - Millburn and Princeton both have over $35,000 in Local Fair Share per student, Chatham has barely $20,000 a student, Mountain Lakes has about $17,500 a student, but they have nothing compared to what Jersey Shore resort communities and Hoboken have.
In per student terms, the districts in New Jersey with the greatest tax capacity are usually small districts at the Shore. These districts are sometimes non-operating and are never K-12. Cape May Point has $1.277 million in Local Fair Share per student. Allenhurst has $1.192 million per student. Avalon has $606,876 per student.
Cape May Point's school tax rate is only 0.0082.
Allenhurst's school tax rate is only 0.0060.
Avalon Boro's school tax rate is only 0.0403.
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| Cape May Point: $462 million in Equalized Valuation + $14 million in Total Income + Three Students = $26,803 in state aid. |
The richest school district with more than 500 students is Hoboken, with over $70,000 in Local Fair Share per student.
Millburn, often considered New Jersey's wealthiest town, is only the 33rd highest tax resource district in New Jersey.
Different districts in New Jersey are going to have different levels of property wealth, different incomes, and different numbers of children. Unless we want a totally homogenous human landscape, diversity of financial resources is unavoidable.
However, I expect the state to try to counterbalance these economic facts by giving more state aid to needier districts. The districts on the following list - which correspond to New Jersey's top 10% - often get extremely high levels of aid per student considering how much tax potential they have.
New Jersey's 60 highest resource districts get $53 million in K-12 state aid, with Hoboken getting a fifth of that.
The state aid ranges from the $435 per student that conventionally wealthy Millburn gets to Deal getting $12,114 per student (mostly through Interdistrict Choice.) Allenhurst gets a sickeningly unfair $11,936 per student out of Adjustment Aid and Transportation Aid.
SFRA was supposed to let every district in New Jersey get some aid through the three Categorical Aid streams. SFRA was supposed to let economically unjustified high-aid levels persist through Adjustment Aid.
I ask you, when there is no realistic way for New Jersey to fully fund SFRA can we continue to aid districts whose tax capacities show that they do not need state aid?
| District Name | County | DFG Classification | Local Fair Share | Local Fair Share Per Student | K-12 State Aid | K-12 Aid Per Student |
| CAPE MAY POINT | CAPE MAY | $3,831,214 | $1,277,071 | $26,803 | $8,934 | |
| ALLENHURST | MONM. | $4,770,971 | $1,192,743 | $47,745 | $11,936 | |
| AVALON BORO | CAPE MAY | FG | $59,473,862 | $606,876 | $73,209 | $747 |
| SEA ISLE CITY | CAPE MAY | B | $34,151,452 | $388,085 | $254,766 | $2,895 |
| LONGPORT | ATLANTIC | $15,252,421 | $372,010 | $91,717 | $2,237 | |
| STONE HARBOR BORO | CAPE MAY | FG | $30,768,648 | $287,557 | $53,463 | $500 |
| SADDLE RIVER BORO | BERGEN | J | $48,204,780 | $249,766 | $210,006 | $1,088 |
| LONG BEACH ISLAND | OCEAN | FG | $44,619,512 | $178,478 | $723,158 | $2,893 |
| SEASIDE PARK BORO | OCEAN | $5,951,882 | $165,330 | $156,210 | $4,339 | |
| ALPINE BORO | BERGEN | J | $33,818,844 | $148,982 | $143,886 | $634 |
| SPRING LAKE BORO | MONM. | DE | $33,994,524 | $110,193 | $190,254 | $617 |
| SEA GIRT BORO | MONMOUTH | I | $21,363,869 | $104,214 | $104,828 | $511 |
| BEACH HAVEN BORO | OCEAN | FG | $8,104,904 | $101,311 | $200,724 | $2,509 |
| DEAL BORO | MONM. | $17,212,918 | $100,075 | $2,083,568 | $12,114 | |
| CAPE MAY CITY | CAPE MAY | CD | $15,801,869 | $96,944 | $553,673 | $3,397 |
| INTERLAKEN | MONM. | $3,396,057 | $91,785 | $61,636 | $1,666 | |
| LAVALLETTE BORO | OCEAN | DE | $16,792,324 | $87,007 | $174,442 | $904 |
| BAY HEAD BORO | OCEAN | I | $13,493,324 | $84,333 | $67,332 | $421 |
| ROCKLEIGH | BERGEN | $2,594,637 | $83,698 | $14,971 | $483 | |
| HOBOKEN CITY | HUDSON | FG | $187,075,236 | $70,889 | $10,656,560 | $4,038 |
| ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS BORO | BERGEN | I | $37,969,466 | $68,661 | $293,971 | $532 |
| HARDING TOWNSHIP | MORRIS | J | $31,097,756 | $67,677 | $233,677 | $509 |
| MARGATE CITY | ATLANTIC | DE | $36,139,003 | $63,180 | $546,380 | $955 |
| WILDWOOD CREST BORO | CAPE MAY | B | $18,478,211 | $62,426 | $656,345 | $2,217 |
| NORTH WILDWOOD CITY | CAPE MAY | A | $21,201,289 | $55,212 | $666,740 | $1,736 |
| AVON BORO | MONM. | I | $9,927,073 | $48,662 | $175,564 | $861 |
| OCEAN CITY | CAPE MAY | DE | $96,496,993 | $46,061 | $3,766,449 | $1,798 |
| BEDMINSTER TWP | SOMER. | I | $34,791,462 | $45,008 | $667,403 | $863 |
| BRIGANTINE CITY | ATLANTIC | CD | $32,792,678 | $44,799 | $2,291,507 | $3,130 |
| MONMOUTH BEACH BORO | MONMOUTH | I | $12,713,019 | $43,095 | $152,604 | $517 |
| EDGEWATER BORO | BERGEN | GH | $38,679,063 | $41,236 | $944,565 | $1,007 |
| RUMSON BORO | MONM. | J | $36,852,943 | $37,263 | $380,733 | $385 |
| MILLBURN TWP | ESSEX | J | $181,130,096 | $37,109 | $1,981,782 | $406 |
| PRINCETON | MERCER | I | $136,063,820 | $36,804 | $3,429,578 | $928 |
| SOMERSET HILLS REGIONAL | SOMER. | I | $72,366,894 | $35,914 | $877,110 | $435 |
| COLTS NECK TWP | MONM. | I | $33,709,951 | $35,261 | $997,628 | $1,044 |
| MENDHAM TWP | MORRIS | J | $24,645,421 | $33,350 | $430,042 | $582 |
| SOUTHERN REGIONAL | OCEAN | DE | $95,428,678 | $32,459 | $1,960,025 | $667 |
| MOUNTAINSIDE BORO | UNION | I | $24,314,155 | $30,816 | $492,364 | $624 |
| SUMMIT CITY | UNION | I | $125,725,394 | $30,800 | $1,607,073 | $394 |
| FRANKLIN LAKES BORO | BERGEN | I | $51,923,715 | $30,724 | $736,334 | $436 |
| WEST CAPE MAY BORO | CAPE MAY | DE | $2,555,658 | $30,067 | $508,018 | $5,977 |
| TEWKSBURY TWP | HUNTERDON | J | $19,941,519 | $29,631 | $849,868 | $1,263 |
| FLORHAM PARK BORO | MORRIS | I | $29,369,500 | $29,487 | $485,924 | $488 |
| MORRIS PLAINS BORO | MORRIS | I | $18,809,045 | $29,389 | $766,220 | $1,197 |
| RUMSON-FAIR HAVEN REG | MONM. | J | $26,471,582 | $28,931 | $437,846 | $479 |
| BRADLEY BEACH BORO | MONM. | CD | $11,545,746 | $28,438 | $1,062,509 | $2,617 |
| MENDHAM BORO | MORRIS | J | $16,733,328 | $28,266 | $249,335 | $421 |
| MAHWAH TWP | BERGEN | I | $85,878,530 | $28,129 | $2,306,791 | $756 |
| FORT LEE BORO | BERGEN | FG | $108,964,199 | $28,105 | $2,046,454 | $528 |
| WOODCLIFF LAKE BORO | BERGEN | J | $21,505,801 | $27,857 | $356,147 | $461 |
| WEST ESSEX REGIONAL | ESSEX | I | $46,583,795 | $27,844 | $1,029,742 | $616 |
| SHORE REGIONAL | MONM. | GH | $16,797,733 | $27,269 | $439,299 | $713 |
| SPRING LAKE HEIGHTS BORO | MONM. | FG | $13,088,499 | $25,664 | $321,679 | $631 |
| BOONTON TWP | MORRIS | I | $18,282,473 | $24,639 | $464,923 | $627 |
| CRANBURY TWP | MIDDLESEX | J | $19,422,693 | $23,949 | $466,503 | $575 |
| BRIELLE BORO | MONM. | GH | $18,719,365 | $23,907 | $430,068 | $549 |
| HO HO KUS BORO | BERGEN | J | $21,299,137 | $23,613 | $465,891 | $517 |
| BELMAR BORO | MONM. | DE | $16,373,852 | $23,225 | $980,970 | $1,391 |
| MOONACHIE BORO | BERGEN | B | $8,186,949 | $22,247 | $393,175 | $1,068 |
| $53,238,187 |
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