Two Ways to Determine County Education Costs Have Different Results

COURT HOUSE — What is the cost to Cape May County residents to educate their 13,000-plus public school pupils?
To judge education costs as this 2008-09 school year begins, the Herald looked at two indicators — per pupil costs and tax rates.
One local school district, the tiny elementary school in Sea Isle City, was notorious last year for having the highest per-pupil cost of education in the entire state — $35,209, or nearly three times the state average.
The Avalon School District also had one of the state’s highest costs for taxpayers at $29,793 per pupil.
Both of these local barrier island schools are K-8 districts with under 90 students. They had the two highest costs of 67 ranked schools in their category — K-8 with less than 400 pupils.
With the exception of the Woodbine School District’s cost of $10,016 per pupil, the other county schools in that category were also among the state’s highest: North Wildwood’s $19,094 ranked 62nd; Stone Harbor, $21,434, 64th; and Wildwood Crest, $17,118, 57th.
Dennis and Upper township schools had over 400 students and lower costs, $12,492 for the former and $10,449 for the latter.
The West Cape May School District also had the highest cost per student, $24,983, of the 62 K-6 districts in the state.
The other K-6 districts in this county Cape May, ranked 56th, and Lower Township, ranked 34th, had per pupil costs of $16,264 and $12,110 respectively.
Of the 43 state K-12 districts with less than 1,800 students, the Wildwood schools finished with the highest per pupil cost of $18,880.
The Middle Township and Ocean City districts, which have between 1,800 and 3,500 students, finished 14th and 70th in that category. Middle Township’s per pupil cost was $10,846 and Ocean City’s was $16,819.
Lower Cape May Regional School District’s per pupil cost of $12,311 ranked 12th among 47 similar districts.
The two county districts, Special Services and Technical School, were ranked high among similar districts throughout the state. Of the eight state special services districts, Cape May’s per pupil cost of $45,507 ranked sixth, while Cape May’s Technical School ranked 17th out of 21 with a per pupil cost of $17,049.
Costs in Special Services districts are higher than traditional districts in part because of one-on-one attention many pupils require.
Looking at school tax rates is another (and some argue more accurate) way to determine education costs. The school tax rate is the amount of a resident’s property tax bill issued by the municipality that goes toward education costs.
The school tax rate in Cape May Point, for instance, is one cent, which means that property owners there will pay $10 per $100,000 of their homes’ assessed value.
Cape May Point has the lowest school tax rate in the county followed by Avalon, 3.4 cents; Stone Harbor, 5.7 cents; and Sea Isle City, 6.7 cents.
On the other side of the coin, property owners in Upper Township have the highest school tax rate in the county — 97.2 cents or $972 per $100,000 of assessed value.
Other municipalities with high rates include: Dennis Township, 77.7 cents; Middle Township, 68.3 cents; Woodbine, 67.9 cents; and Lower Township, which has a district rate of 30.1 cents and a regional district rate of 23 cents for a total school tax rate of 53.1 cents.
Cape May and West Cape May also contribute to the regional school district. Cape May’s district tax rate is 6.7 cents and its regional rate is 22.6 cents for a total rate of 29.3 cents, compared to West Cape May’s 17.6-cent district rate, 30.6-cent regional rate and 48.2-cent total school tax rate.
From highest to lowest, the following tax rates round out the county’s 16 municipalities: Wildwood, 51.2 cents; West Wildwood, 48.7 cents; Wildwood Crest, 37.2 cents; North Wildwood, 18.3 cents; and Ocean City; 17.2 cents.
Municipal voters are given an opportunity to approve or disapprove education budgets in the annual school elections held in April.
A Board of School Estimate is the link between both Special Services and Technical School and freeholders, who channel taxpayers’ money into those districts.
This year, voters defeated school budgets in Sea Isle City, Woodbine, Middle Township and West Wildwood.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com