By LISA FLEISHER
Does Newark spend $24,500 or $17,000 per pupil to educate its students? Or is it closer to $10,000? Depends who's counting.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says the first, the state Department of Education uses the middle number and urban-school advocates use the lowest figure.
It's more than an academic debate: The amount of money spent per pupil can also hold sway over state Supreme Court justices, who, for more than 30 years, have forced the state time and again to spend more on education and are on the cusp of deciding a case that could impel the state to spend an additional $1.7 billion on schools.
"They are sensitive to both their duties to uphold and interpret the Constitution as well as the realities of politics," said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. "So new numbers and new calculations may well have an impact."
Then there's sticker shock—especially when annual numbers start to look more like college tuition. Mr. Christie is on a quest to convince people that money does not equal success in public education.
The numbers swing wildly based on what's included, what's deemed irrelevant to the cost of educating children, and whether factors such as poverty should be taken into account. Now, the Christie administration is putting finishing touches on a new method to calculate that cost, and most districts will likely see their costs per pupil rise.
"The people of New Jersey are entitled to know exactly how much money is being spent on its schools," acting state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said. "Right now, as a result of archaic accounting decisions, or other considerations, it's very difficult to actually discern that number."
A state-mandated formula excludes costs such as debt payments, construction and pension expenses paid by the state. Nor does it include federal grants, which help push Newark's budget to $900 million annually. The formula puts Newark's figure at $17,027 per student for the 2011-12 school year.
"It's really not as easy of a number as it seems," said Lynne Strickland, the executive director for the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents a wide range of districts, parents and educators in New Jersey. "It's a way of talking and comparing costs and expenditures across the state. It's a shortcut, but it's not always [giving] you a representative picture."
Bruce Baker, a Rutgers University professor, says higher per-pupil spending in areas such as northern New Jersey are partially explained by a more expensive labor market than southern districts.
Mr. Baker said it's an "urban legend" that Newark's figure is "some crazy astronomical figure." Plus, poorer districts must spend more on security, extra tutoring and other expenses.
David Sciarra, executive director of the Newark-based Education Law Center, which is suing the state over school funding, says wealthier districts, on a weighted basis, spend more per pupil than Newark, which he says spends $10,178.
It's unclear exactly where Mr. Christie gets the $24,500 number. The latest statistics available from the federal National Center for Education Statistics say the district spent $23,500 per pupil in 2007-08, compared with New Jersey's $16,124 average and the $10,053 average in the U.S.
Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for the governor, said it's "certainly possible" the governor mixed up the number at his town halls and in other public speeches, or that a staff member made an error. He said Mr. Christie also says "nearly $25,000."
"It's a substantial amount compared to many other [poor] districts, and certainly much, much higher than the statewide average per pupil," he said.
Newark Public Schools has 38,000 students, not including 6,000 charter school students. Valerie Wilson, the district's business administrator, said that if the city's cost-per-pupil shoots up substantially, taxpayers are not going to be mollified by an explanation that the state recalculated the number.
"You think that's going to work with them?" she said.
Write to Lisa Fleisher at lisa.fleisher@wsj.com
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