Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002

Through high expenditures and well-conceived planning New Jersey has broadened the scope of its school system beyond that of many other States. The State's educational expense per pupil is exceeded only by California, Nevada, and New York. The average cost for each student in average daily attendance in 1932 was $1126.39, against a national average of $811.36. The outlay fell in 1936-37 to $113.99, a decrease of nearly 110 percent. As a result of the State's liberal educational program, the proportion of illiterates declined from 5.11 to 3.8 percent in the period of 1920-30.

Expansion of schoolhouses and teaching staffs has been matched by efforts to develop courses of study suitable to the special groups arising from an industrialized civilization. The foreign-born white population of New Jersey is now above 840,000 or about 22 percent of the whole, and there are more than 11,400,000 white residents of foreign or "mixed" parentage. Americanization courses have been installed in the regular schools for the children and adult evening classes have been established.

In the central and southern parts of the State a separate elementary school system is maintained for Negro children. (Editors note: this was written in 1939 and, of course, has not been true for many years.) This is not a State policy, but depends rather upon the county and community, many small municipalities in which there are few Negro residents being unable to afford the double expense of a biracial system. Negroes attend all the institutions of higher learning in the State, with the exception of Princeton University. Despite the State's democratic educational program, Negroes often may not teach in their own localities after graduation from the State Teachers' Colleges. Paterson, Newark, and Jersey City are among the noteworthy exceptions to this practice. The State maintains the Manual and Industrial School for Colored Youth at Bordentown, where 32 teachers give more than 400 pupils occupational education and regular academic training.

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