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New Jersey Public Schools Ranked No. 2 In the Nation

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ,  A new study ranked New Jersey’s public school system No. 2 in the country. WalletHub released 2019’s States with the Best & Worst School Systems .

The study focuses on performance, funding, safety, class size and instructor credentials.

Researchers compared the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. New Jersey ranked No. 2 in highest reading test scores and lowest drop out rate and No. 3 in highest math test scores and lowest pupil to teacher ratio. Delaware ranked No. 12 overall, No. 2 in lowest bullying incidents and tied for 4th in highest median ACT score.

Pennsylvania public schools ranked 27th overall and No. 5 in lowest percentage of threatened or injured high school students. Massachusetts was ranked No. 1 and Connecticut was ranked No. 3 overall.

To see the full list, click here.

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Reader asks Where is the Master Plan for Ridgewood Public Schools?

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In the Ridgewood News today ther is a story about a large turnout at the BOE meeting, complaining about class size.

In the same meeting someone complained that we do not have full day kindergarten. ( They somehow ignore the fact that the district will need more space and have to hire more teachers. One complains about the needs of working parents. I do not want to permanently share in the child care expenses of working parents. They work so they should pay for kindergarten enrichment classes if they think that their children need this to get into college)

We pay very high taxes, mostly for the schools. People keep moving to Ridgewood for the schools. There is a disincentive for people without children in the schools to stay in town – and the cycle of postgraduation home selling continues. This issue has been discussed on this blog but I think that it deserves as much attention as the high density housing and parking.

The council and BOE should get together and do some master planning for the schools. We can’t keep up with the wants and needs of the parents, the town does not exist to please the parents of school children. Something has to give!

The council should consider a tax incentive for residents who have lived in Ridgewood X number of years and no longer have dependents in the schools. The spiral of selling homes after graduation needs to end. I will probably sell my 5 bedroom home in the next few years. A family with 4 children would love to have this house and pay my taxes for the schools. At a cost of $17,000 per student the town will start losing money immediately. I will not stay and spend my savings to help prop up this system.

Where is the Master Plan for Ridgewood Public Schools?