According to newly released data from the State of New Jersey’s Department of Education for the 2025-2026 academic year, the number of students attending public schools in the Garden State has decreased by 23,732, to a total of 1,357,450 statewide. This includes all NJ public schools, charter schools, and tech schools.
What makes these numbers even more significant is that they are the lowest enrollment rates since the 2001-2002 school year and the lowest enrollment since the pandemic. The last time enrollment in NJ went below 1.3 million was in the 1999-2000 school year, when enrollment was 1,289,221, when Governor Christie Whitman was still in office.
Several factors driving these statistics are declining birth rates, homeschooling, and non-public school education on the rise; it is reasonable to see why Garden State public schools, which are often regarded as some of the best schools in the country, have experienced this.
Declining birth rates are not unique to New Jersey, but across the country. For over a decade, the birth rate has dropped significantly, and there have been fewer births nationwide since the 2008 financial crisis. Many members of Gen Z still live at home with their parents due to economic turmoil and paying off student loans before purchasing a home or renting an apartment, resulting in NJ being the top state for children living at home with their parents.
Of course, the current cost of living does not help that. New Jersey is one of the most expensive states in the country, with property taxes going up year by year. Add that to a state budget that is the highest in state history (nearly $61 billion), and you have a recipe for disaster.
Parents sending their children to non-public schools or even homeschooling have been on the rise since the start of the decade. This also coincides with the emergence of the controversial sex education curriculum that many districts implemented to teach younger students who may not be mature enough to understand the topic. This has prompted younger parents to pull their children out of public schools. Homeschooling is not the only option. The Trump Administration has made a huge push for school choice programs such as school vouchers, which make private schools more accessible to parents.
In addition, another reason for these numbers is the cost of living in the state. For a long time, many Jersey residents would pack their things and move to states such as North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee, where it is more affordable.
The best way to increase these numbers back to what they were before is for the current administration to fix the current school funding formula, which determines how school funding gets distributed. Reforming the school funding formula should be one priority; however, lawmakers in Trenton must address the affordability challenges for young families to stay in the state. Under the current formula, many municipalities get more than enough money while others do not get enough. Balancing out how much money each district receives would allow NJ to use its money more properly when funding school districts.
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