The Secret to Better Public Schools and Balanced State Budgets: Strong Private Schools

Cory Larkin / August 09, 2010

What happens when parents have the opportunity to exercise choice and send their children to private schools? Children get an education that best meets their unique needs, and taxpayers get to put some hard-earned dollars back in their pockets.

Per-pupil annual expenditures in New Jersey public schools now average $17,000, eclipsing school spending in other states. But the Governor’s Study Commission on New Jersey’s Nonpublic Schools recently determined that New Jersey private schools save the Garden State $2.7 billion annually.

Yet in the past five years, non-public school enrollment has dropped by more than 29,000 as the economy has made it even more difficult for parents to pay private school tuition as well as high property taxes, which fund the state’s public schools. (more…)