The PA regional publics are not doing so well. Some of it may be due to the declining population in western PA. Also wondering if the sorts of kids who used to go to PA regional universities from NJ are just staying in-state. Montclair, Rowan and TCNJ have invested in academics and in hiring faculty, as well as adding buildings.
As a parent of a child in a very good NJ school district, and as a professor at a regional university whose feeder high schools are lower performing, I can see firsthand that the variation in schools is quite stark. Since school districts are locally controlled town by town, and rely heavily on property taxes, the influence of parental income and education is magnified - much more than in states where the school districts may be county-wide.