Schools

Could County Taxpayers Be on the Hook For Lakewood School Budget Woes?

Private school busing blamed for budget shortfall

Lakewood's school system is $4 million in the red and, according to media reports, planning to seek help from county and state taxpayers to make up the shortfall.

The school district, which is responsible for educating about 5,500 students in its six public schools, also provides busing for 19,000 students in 103 private schools, the Associated Press reported this week.

Complicating matters is the fact that the large Orthodox Jewish community buses male and female students separately, yet most of the students are dismissed at the same time, requiring more buses since the two genders do not ride together.  The $4 million shortfall has mainly been caused by an influx in over 5,700 additional private school students over last year, according to the AP report.

According to state law, school districts that bus their regular education students to public schools are required to provide transportation to nonpublic schools less than 20 miles away, as long as the student lives at least 2.5 or 2 miles or farther away from the nonpublic school, depending on their grade level.

Boards of education, at their own discretion and expense, may adopt policies to provide transportation for nonpublic school students who are not otherwise eligible for transportation, according to documentation obtained from the state Department of Education.

But will Ocean County or state taxpayers be on the hook for a bailout of Lakewood's district and its unique transportation requirements?

The answer is unclear, according to state officials.

"The New Jersey Department of Education is open to dialogue on this matter," Michael Yaple, spokesman for the Department of Education, said in an e-mail to Patch. "We stand ready to discuss the situation with local school officials, and come up with solutions. Until we have those discussions, it would be premature to publicly speculate what could or should occur."

The case of a school district being unable to meet its financial obligations is a rare one, especially since New Jersey districts are required to pass a balanced budget each year.

In four cases, the state has taken over from local school boards and assumed control of the Newark, Paterson, Jersey City and Camden school districts.


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