Moments ago, Governor Chris Christie signed the historic Lakewood busing bill into law.

Lakewood residents welcomed the news that the New Jersey Senate and Assembly passed Bill S-2049, which garnered enough votes for passage through each of the houses in a compressed time frame just ahead of the end of the Spring legislative session.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Bob Singer and Assemblyman David Rible and Sean Kean, is part of a state and local package that restores safety busing, sometimes called “courtesy busing” for 10,000 public schools and private schools students who live in the Lakewood School District.

According to state law, busing is only mandated for those living beyond a prescribed distance, typically two miles, from school. Districts are free and often encouraged to provide busing to other students if they feel that local conditions mandate such. For the past 30 years, the Lakewood school district provided such busing to kids who live more than 6/10ths of a mile from school and to kids who would have to cross a major roadway.

In recent years, the number of students in the Lakewood school district grew dramatically , both in the number of public school kids and in the number of private school kids. During this time, State Aid, which is a primary funding vehicle for the district, was stagnant and even at times shrank – allowing no additional State support for the many additional children in the district. The root cause of the shortage in State Aid is actually two-fold: The State Aid formulas do not account for district kids who attend private schools, but are equally entitled to basic services; compounding the issue is that the formulas do not even properly fund the public school children, as allocations under the formula have not increased apace with the growth in the public schools. These factors cause distortions in the formula that are well known in Trenton; there is a state consensus that the formulas must be fixed and current efforts are underway to examine the overall inequities.

With State Aid shortfalls, the Lakewood School District has been encountering recurring deficits. To help out and reduce costs for the last two years, the Lakewood Mosdos implemented ever more challenging staggered start times, increasing their costs and making their school day more challenging. Their laudable efforts to work with the district helped reduce costs to the taxpayer by more than $8 million a year, while preserving the vital safety busing. The Mosdos implemented other changes to busing too, in an effort to reduce cost. Among this was the elimination of safety busing for kids who lived above .6 of a mile and less than .8 of a mile and similar changes. While this was helpful, it was not enough.

This year, as the district continued to grow, the savings from the staggered start times, called “tiering,” were not enough to offset the district’s growing overall deficit. The district saw no choice but to eliminate all non-mandated services, no matter how essential they might be. In the winter, the final announcement of the termination of courtesy busing was made, and the district made clear there were no additional “last ditch” options available – there would be no last-minute reprieve as had occurred on some prior occasions.

Lakewood now faced the certain prospect of 10,000 public and nonpublic school children left without transportation for the 16-17 school year and beyond. This presents the township with the hazardous situation of thousands of young children walking to and from school, often on busy roads, including Route 9, Route 88, Central Avenue, County Line Road and other major roadways. Imagine a situation of a young child having to walk from their home on Route 88 down along Cedarbridge Avenue to the Cheder or to Yeshiva Orchos Chaim in the Industrial Park area, or of a young girl walking alone from school on an icy winter evening along Route 9, and we realize how untenable such a situation would be.

Facing this predicament, on the advice and with the partnership of Lakewood Mayor Menashe Miller and Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein, Lakewood’s local delegation, comprised of Senator Bob Singer and Assemblymen Kean and Rible developed a funding mechanism that would allow the state to provide such busing, outside of the frozen State Aid formulas. The cost of this would be small compared say to the “bailout” of the Atlantic City school district, which is a tenth the size of Lakewood and which received $32 million this year in special aid, or the “bailout” of the Camden and Patterson districts, which cost the state well over $100 million in the last two years.

Singer, Kean and Rible wrote the funding mechanism bill, introduced it in the Senate and Assembly, and worked tirelessly to shepherd it through to passage. The bill establishes a three-year nonpublic school pupil transportation pilot program in Lakewood School District. The program will provide funding to a consortium of nonpublic schools which will assume also responsibility for the district’s mandated nonpublic school busing. As part of the deal, Lakewood Township will fund safety busing for the public school kids.

Despite some opposition from the NJEA (teachers union), the Lakewood Vaad (chaired by Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg) and Rabbi Yisroel Schenkolewski, the Igud Hamosdos (in an effort led by Rabbi Shimon Balsam), and Agudath Israel of New Jersey (under the dynamic leadership of Rabbi Avi Schnall), put together a strong and united advocacy effort with coordination by Mrs. C. Jacobowitz of Beth Medrash Govoha. The Advocacy Group worked hand in hand with Senator Singer and Assemblymen Kean and Rible; with Lakewood Mayor Menashe Miller; with the entire Township committee in an effort spearheaded by Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein.

The bill passed a full Senate vote 22-8, as a result of a meeting between the Senate leadership and the advocacy group. This was followed by a dramatic week during which Rabbi Schnall and Committeeman Lichtenstein held vigil in Trenton as votes were repeatedly delayed until past midnight, when the bill fell just a few votes short of passage in the Assembly. Further efforts by the group, spearheaded by Rabbi Schnall, Committeeman Lichtenstein and Mrs. Jacobowitz, ensured that the bill was brought up again for a vote later in the week, when it passed successfully, following which it was signed by the Governor.

“We are so grateful for the understanding shown by the members of the Senate and Assembly of how badly Lakewood has been shortchanged by the existing State Aid formula,” said the advocacy group, in a statement to the press lauding the bipartisan, bicameral effort. “We would like to particularly acknowledge and thank Governor Christie, Senate President Steve Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, and Assemblyman Gary Schaer, for their support of this bill and for their efforts to ensure the safety of our children.”

Rabbi Schnall emphasized how awed the members of the advocacy group were by the responsiveness and total commitment shown by the Lakewood delegation as they worked tirelessly to shepherd their legislation through the many steps needed to gain its passage. “Senator Singer, Assemblyman Rible, and Assemblyman Kean are truly the heroes here for recognizing the tremendous threat to the well-being of our community’s children and undertaking not to give up until they had achieved a successful solution.”

Rabbi Binyamin Heinemann of the Lakewood Vaad pointed out that this is a perfect moment to reflect on how valuable it is that our community comes out to vote – as elected officials respect and recognize communities that are active and engaged.

The advocacy group’s next target is to work to fix the underlying State Aid formula, as until that happens the district will continue to be in financial distress and we will all be facing likely tax increases and cuts in services.

“I appreciate the unique transportation challenges that confront Lakewood, where the vast majority of students attend
nonpublic schools, and but for a robust courtesy busing program, many of these students would have to cross dangerous and crowded intersections to get to and from school,” the Governor stated when signing the bill. “Due to the rapid growth in population, high traffic volume, overcrowded  sidewalks, and crosswalks in need of improvements, students do not have safe pathways to walk to and from school. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the student population in the district will continue to increase, causing greater demands on the already congested roads. This bill ensures all nonpublic school students can get to school safely, while easing the financial burden on the district in providing courtesy busing to address its unique safety concerns.”

The Governor added, “I commend the bill’s sponsors for ensuring the safe transportation of our young students. No matter what school they attend, public or nonpublic, all children in New Jersey should be able to travel safely between their home and school. However, while the pilot program offers a temporary solution for the next three years, the bill does not address the underlying transportation and infrastructure challenges that exist in Lakewood. The safety concerns for students walking to and from schools (and other residents of Lakewood as well) will persist and even intensify until permanent infrastructure improvements are made. For these reasons, I call upon the municipal government to use the relief afforded by this bill to take steps to ensure the safe transportation of its schoolchildren. Specifically, I urge the Township of Lakewood to work with the Division of Local Government Services to develop a Memorandum of Understanding within the next 90 days that will ensure that sufficient capital monies are budgeted for and made available to study, plan and complete necessary infrastructure work such that residents and students of the township can safely walk to school. To encourage the active engagement of the municipal government in making such necessary improvements, and depending upon progress made in this regard, I will consider dedicating a portion of the appropriation to fund this busing program in the budget I will propose next February to projects that will enhance pedestrian safety.”

[TLS]

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