Does New Jersey really have too many school districts?
Does New Jersey really have “too many” school districts? I don’t know the answer, but I did find something that seems quite interesting. From the website of The National Center for Education Statistics, I found two sources of data. They are a few years old, but I think the conclusions are probably valid. 1. Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, by state – projected 2002 enrollment 2. Number of public school districts, by state: 2003-04 I merged both sources of data into a single excel spreadsheet. I then divided total enrollment by the number of school districts. I expected (based on the media hysteria over how many school districts we have) to see New Jersey near the top when I sort (in ascending order) states by the number of students per school district. In fact, we’re #19. state,students per district Montana,345.05 Vermont,354.19 North Dakota,491.09 Nebraska,558.20 South Dakota,720.63 Maine,903.93 Oklahoma,1124.06 New Hampshire,1260.70 Iowa,1322.50 Arkansas,1420.67
