If the Lakewood School District’s financial situation wasn’t bad enough, it’s about to get even worse.
The District’s State Transportation Aid will be slashed by over $1,500,000, TLS has learned.
“The District received official notification from the DOE that Transportation Aid is being reduced $1,566,821,” an official told TLS.
Attorney Michael Inzelbuch says the Board will be meeting to discuss possible solutions.
Lakewood is from the highest when it comes to property taxes. Look over 80 percent of our kids go to private schools, Shouldn’t we be entitled to FREE courtesy bussing for our children? I’m hopeful that the cut of over 1.5 Million won’t affect us!!
There wasn’t a solution to the busing problem when we were $20 million in debt, how is the solution going to change with another $1.5 million less.
Who’s busing is going to get cut, the mandatory Public School busing or the optional courtesy busing.
Don’t forget to thank Governor Murphy for helping Lakewood School system as he promised he would.
Lets keep voting in the Democrats with their great promises.
Of course it’s going to affect the private schools! The people
Who pay the taxes are going to pay for the children who are here illlefally and have parents who are not paying any taxes.
Honestly we all know if you go to private school you may not have a bus, private school is a choice there is a free school system with buses that everyone can use. This debate is getting old and hearing about how much taxes one town pays so they should deserve free bussing is silly, look at seniors who pay taxes and have no kids in school they get nothing for their tax dollars either. Time for new thinking in some towns.
Why doesn’t every family in lakewood enroll their kids in public school in lakewood? Wonder what will happen.. At least give free bussing
Here we go again “lets enroll in the Public Schools”.
Here are the reasons you can’t do that:
Boys and girls ride the same buses to school
Boys and girls sit in the same classrooms
Segregation is banned in Public Schools.
Lunches are not Kosher
And lastly, leave your Torah at the door, they don’t teach religion in Public Schools
Next time hope when you’re in the polling booth
Courtesy busing doesn’t exist anymore . It is gone for 2 years . Only the public school kids get courtesy busing paid for by the Township grant to the BOE.
Private schools get busing through the LSTA. The state and BOE only pay the LSTA for the mandated students. Every non mandated student pays the LSTA a fee and the LSTA can use any left over money if they for non mandated . But there is no state or BOE payments for courtesy busing at all. I dont understand why people still think that we get courtesy busing ,when it was taken away 2 years,ago .
Moshe that disingenuous claim perpetrated by the Legislature and Christie doesn’t pass the laugh test. Last year the district/LSTA received $1,000 per mandated student for transportation with an actual cost of about $700 per student. The LSTA collected the $150 courtesy fee from only about 25% of courtesy students. The legislation purposely overstated the amount for mandated students in order to pay for courtesy busing. Go back and read statements by Senator Singer accurately claiming the legislation preserved courtesy busing.
the $1,000 was the official state wide amount allocated for aid in lieu, for the millions of kids across the state. it was not specific to Lakewood
It’s time for a change. I’m sure all of the current politicians mean well however the situation keeps getting worse and worse. Can’t we try something different?
The only ‘politician’ that ever did everything that he promised is Donald Trump. You may like it or not but the guy is money for his word. Every other one says what they want you to hear in order to elect them and then it’s lo haya v’lo nivra. The definition of democRAT: To do nothing while trying to make everyone believe that you have done something and to have people believe you are helping them while you hurt them. Sick, sick people those “hate this country RATS”. Make America Great Again and Again and Again.
We all need to send out kids to public school for real let’s just do it we will brake the system and they will realize what there doing and give us vouchers
Ohio has school vouchers freedom of choice where to send your kids to school
for the commentators without a clue.
the state transportation aid has nothing to do with”courtesy” busing. state only give $ for mandated busing. also it has nothing to do with public or private schools. the state looks at any mandated student regardless of which school they attend…
to “Miriam”
Seniors actually get tax breaks because they dont semd kids to schools, if they live in a senior development
To Anonymous: Seniors DO NOT get breaks on real estate taxes. Where did you get that information? There is homestead rebate but that is available to all if you are a homeowner and meet the income requirement and other requirements. The amount is insignificant compared to their taxes.
Is it really over $1.5 million? According to the State’s website, it seems that transportation is being cut roughly $1.15 million, and total cuts (including transportation) is roughly $1.32 million.
To annoyomous..all seniors get is a tax freeze, we all pay taxes and I’m all for the Lakewood kids joining the public schools, there is nothing wrong with getting an education. If all of Lakewood sent their children to public schools the state would have to do something about it, stop with the threats and do it.
Miriam – not true. Not all seniors get a tax freeze. It depends on income. Not all qualify.
I feel that one who doesn’t take out the time to be civic and vote can hardly complain. Our ability to advocate for vouchers and other attempts to address the lack of equality in funding between public and parochial schools is directly linked to the percentage of us who vote. Period
Do you think the state is out for our benefit? Stop expecting them to treat us properly, they don’t really care.
Why is there no statement from the Lakewood Vaad or the Agudah?