Rabbi Avi Schnall, director of Agudath Israel of New Jersey, was among several individuals who testified today at a New Jersey Assembly Education Committee hearing that addressed inequities in school funding formulas that have left many districts in the state facing staggering deficits.
During the public school hearing held at the State House Annex in Trenton, Rabbi Schnall explained that many districts are suffering because the state allocates resources to school districts through a funding formula based on a ratio of property taxes and the number of public school students under the School Funding Reform Act of 2008. Any district that has a high percentage of non-public school students finds itself at a distinct disadvantage, since it has to provide its entire student population with mandated services such as transportation, but receives no funds to provide these services to non-public school students.
The Lakewood School District is a perfect example of this problem, noted Rabbi Schnall. The district receives funding based on the 6,000 students who attend its public schools, yet it still has to provide mandated services to an additional 30,000 private school students. Because of this inequity, the Lakewood School District suffered a $12 million deficit last year and is expected to face a $10 million deficit this year.
“Non public school children are simply not accounted for even though their parents are taxpayers like all others,” observed Rabbi Schnall.
The simplest answer, explained Rabbi Schnall, is to fix the formula so that it takes into account the 150,000 private school children who call New Jersey home.
Rabbi Schnall acknowledged both Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Senate President Steve Sweeney for their efforts on behalf of the Garden State’s many non-public school students.
“I am so grateful to both of these wonderful public servants for bringing this issue to the forefront and thankful to have had the opportunity to be able to give voice to the needs of our non-public school students and their parents,” said Rabbi Schnall. “All students in New Jersey, no matter what school they attend, should be included equally in the state’s funding formula.”
Great job !!!
The issue that Rabbi Schnall is addressing is the reason that the Lakewood BOE is forever under seige. Until this formula is fixed, no matter what is done (even if all courtesy bussing was cut) the Lakewood school system will be in a deficit mode.
The way to solve it to make a coalition of Seniors, private school parents and public school parents and get Trenton to make the change. Until the, it will not get done.
Absolutely correct. Lakewood will always be in a deficit because of the flawed funding formula. Unless the formula is changed the school district will never have enough money to function.