2018/19 Advertised Appropriations (What JCPS Spends Money On)

How to use this visualization:

This "tree map" shows the 2018/19 appropriations (i.e. expenses) for Jersey City Public Schools. I downloaded the data from the NJ Department of Education website, created a subset of "Appropriations" showing total spending, and then removed subtotals and totals so that only detailed lined items are visualized.

Purpose of this visualization:

Jersey City will lose $27 million in state adjustment aid this budget cycle. A key question to consider is: what exactly will be cut? Where does the funding *currently* reside? What are the largest "buckets" of expense categories?  This visualization, showing 2018/19 advertised expense, shows the major buckets of spending.

A few notes:

  1. The full 2018/19 user friendly budget is available at this link and reflects about $660 million of proposed spending for 2018/19.  This is inclusive of K-12 spending, PreK, and funds that "pass through" the JCPS budget to charter schools.
  2. Major expense categories are grouped and color-coded as noted by the legend on the top right of the visualization.
  3. You can drill into the details of this data by using the Filter on the right side of the view. The filter is by expense category; for instance: if you UN-check the "School Based Budget" (which accounted for nearly $294 million in spending last year) the visualization will remove that category, and more categories will appear, allowing you to see smaller buckets of spending.
  4. Because it's the largest line item, it's worth noting that the "School Based Budget" is a lump-sum line item of spending that connotes spending allocated to each of Jersey City's schools. More to come on this in future visualizations...I'd like to create a data visualization for each of the district's 39 schools using the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, a mandated report published each year by the district.
  5. Feel free to play around with this and learn what is funded in our schools. You cannot break this -- if you find yourself in a view you don't know how to get out of, simply refresh the webpage. Everyone can and should learn how our collective pool of tax dollars is spent!

 

Resources and Links:

Scroll to top