How to use this visualization:
Check out prior visualizations here that I'm sharing as part of the 2019/20 budget cycle.
This visualization shows multiple lenses into the proposed 2019/20 "advertised appropriations" within Jersey City's public schools, as reported by the Jersey City Board of Education here. This budget has been prepared by the district administration and a finalized version, after having gone through a public comment period, will be approved by the Board of Education in early May 2019.
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? The proposed 2019/20 budget gives us an initial look. The budget will be finalized in May.
A few notes:
- The full 2019/20 proposed budget reflects about $30+ million of budget cuts for the 2019/20 school year, including hundreds of staff cuts in JCPS. This is inclusive of K-12 spending, PreK, and funds that "pass through" the JCPS budget to charter schools.
- Major expense categories are grouped and color-coded as noted by the legend on the top right of the visualization.
- There are four separate views - please use the tabs at the top of the visualization to page through the views. This is what the page view tabs look like:
- 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. The 2019/20 school based budgets for each school are not yet available as of the publishing of this post. Therefore we can look back at the 2018/19 school based budgets - which I visualized here - to get a sense of what's included.
- 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:
2019/20 Proposed Budget (note: this is not the full, detailed budget)
2017 Comprehensive Annual Report available on JCPS website
2019/20 *Proposed* Budget (visualization coming soon!) available on Public Board Docs for March 20th, 2019 Meeting
Public Calendar for 2019/20 Budget available on Public Board Docs for March 20th, 2019 Meeting
NJ Department of Education - User Friendly Budget Landing Page
Jersey City User Friendly Budget for 2018/19 (from NJ Department of Education website)