[REPORT] By Aaron Lang. The population of Lakewood increased 54% over the last decade. Most of this increase is natural. The birthrate of 1,539 in 1995 increased to 3,461 in 2007 or 49.5 births per 1000. To put this number in perspective, in 2007, there were 4,092 births, or 17.1 per 1000, to mothers residing in Jersey City, and 4,832, or 13.4 per 1,000 in Newark.
Of the 21,567 children registered in Lakewood schools, 75% attend private schools, saving the state almost $300 million. Ninety-nine percent of township students are enrolled in private schools attend yeshivas.
This leaves the burden of education upon Lakewood families, about 34% of which are below the poverty level.
Recent Supreme Court decisions regarding state funded vouchers and the provision of public school teachers in religious schools, the charter movement, and alternate methods of delivering education, will potentially improve access to education for Lakewood students and help to alleviate the financial burden upon their parents and community.
Read full report on PDF here. TLS.
What an amazing article! I would never have believed that we have such intelligent, knowledgable, and articlutate writers in our midst. I certainly hope that school leaders and board members read this article carefully, and follow up with the author on further action that can be done to alleviate our collective financial burden of education.
Statistics. Statistics. Statistics. Education can be called a challange all over not just in Lakewood. Somehow the Jewish religion has thusfar survived thousands of years. This is not something that is challanging. Now take text messaging or internet. Thats a challange!
please print my comment- great news but what will the town do to keep busing costs in line
OK what does this mean “Most of this increase is natural. ”
i disagree this is a poorly written article that makes little sense
aron lang gets my vote!now if he can only get his message into the right hands…
if I understand this article correctly, natural mean births. maybe if we didn’t have so many people moving to lakewood the birth rate would not be escalating so rapidly
Read the full report by clicking the PDF link. The three categories of constitutional school aid, genuine choice, choice by default, and per capita aid, are my own chidush. The arguments in the paper are correct.