Berkeley Heights 2023-2024 NJ School Performance Report Drill Down
How each Berkeley Heights School measured up on the 2023-2024 NJ Performance Reports The recently published 2023-2024 NJ School Performance Report reveals a mixed academic recovery for Berkeley Heights, shaped not only by the pandemic but also by years of inconsistent leadership and problematic board governance. Student proficiency in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) has shown modest improvement—Math rising...
2025 7-District Dashboard – NJ School Performance Report Comparisons
NJ School Performance Report Comparisons for Berkeley Heights, New Providence, Millburn, Westfield, Chatham, Madison and Summit. The following analysis draws on the newly released New Jersey School Performance Reports for the 2023–2024 school year. It highlights trends in student proficiency across English Language Arts, Math, and Science, while also examining other key indicators such as student growth, chronic absenteeism, and...
Concentrated Influence: Following the Money in NJ Politics (2019–2024) Part 1
State Level Data and Insights Last year, NJ21st published a multi-part series tracking the flow of grey money into County Committees between 2019 and 2023 — helping clarify how more than $50 million from non-individual entities, like PACs, moved through the county networks. This year, we’ve built a more robust infrastructure to collect, clean, and analyze a more complete dataset....
Fewer Borrowers, Heavier Load: New Jersey’s Student Debt Paradox
When it comes to student debt, New Jersey paints a complicated picture—one that’s often overshadowed by larger states like California and Texas. While New Jersey has significantly fewer borrowers overall, the average burden each borrower carries is among the highest in the country. Based on US DOE Data, New Jersey reports approximately 1.23 million student loan borrowers, far fewer than:...
NJ21st 03/29/2025 Newsletter
This week’s newsletter opens with the newly released 2024 statewide property tax data—complete with an interactive tool and in-depth analysis. We then turn to the March 25, 2025 Town Council Meeting, where concerned residents challenged the Mayor, Town Council, and Recreation Department on their tactics—only to be met with “ends justify the means” responses. Next, we feature two community voices:...
NJ21st Interactive Property Tax Dashboard
The NJ21st Property Tax Dashboard helps residents explore and compare local property tax data across New Jersey. With this tool, you can: Compare your town’s 2024 average school, municipal, county, and total tax payments to those of other towns and cities. View trends from 2019 to 2024 to see how your town’s average tax payments have changed over time—side-by-side with...
New Jersey & Union County Property Tax Trends: 2019–2024
The Department of Community Affairs published it’s annual Property Tax Report. Excel files were merged from 2019-2024 and Google Colab was used to assist in cleaning the data, applying uniformity to the tables and creating the graphs. What the Data Tells us about the State as a Whole Based on verified statewide municipal tax data, this report provides a comprehensive...
John’s Notes on the 03/18/2024 BOE Meeting-Turf Field and Budget
The Board of Education (BOE) was placed in an impossible situation last night by the Mayor and the Recreation Department. A room packed with residents that had only been exposed to the Mayor’s version of events, thanks to what we now know were fabricated rules regarding contract negotiations—where confidentiality seemingly only applies when it suits the Mayor – who apparently...
If Given the Choice, Would Private Schools Really Be A Better Deal for Berkeley Heights?
Given the high per-pupil cost of Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPSNJ) and ongoing discussions about declining enrollment despite rising expenses, I wanted to end the 2025 Budget series by seeing how BHPSNJ stacks up against private schools in terms of cost. I selected five private K-8 schools and five private high schools to compare their tuition costs with BHPSNJ’s reported...
John’s Notes on the 03/18/2025 Town Council Meeting: Affordable Housing, Fire Prevention, Storm Water on the Agenda…
Here’s a brief synopsis of each resolution on the agenda and questions resident can ask… ORDINANCE NO. 2025-144 Affordable Housing After negotiations with Fair Share Housing Center (FSHC), the township agreed to a prospective need obligation of 240 affordable housing units while maintaining a present need obligation of zero. Questions Residents can Ask: How will the township meet the...
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