School aid
Spokesman Michael Inzelbuch, who also serves a board attorney, declined to comment.
Lawsuit dates back nearly a decade
The commissioner’s letter is the latest response to a March state appeals court ruling that found Lakewood public schools do not receive adequate state funding to meet their needs. The appeals court declared that the district is “severely strained” by its obligation to provide transportation and special education to thousands of non-public school students.
More recently, an internal review by State Auditor David Kaschak determined that the Lakewood School District suffered from “severe fiscal distress” and would benefit from additional aid. He also suggested the state create a new funding category for the district.
The March appeals court decision relates to the Alcantara case, filed in 2014 that challenged the state’s funding of the 6,000-student district, claiming the district’s legal obligation to provide transportation and other services to more than 40,000 nonpublic school students required more state aid.
In the decision handed down March 6, the three-person appellate court declared that Allen-McMillan must review the district’s situation and come up with a way to improve its funding.
But it did not include a deadline or a more detailed requirement for how to proceed.
The commissioner first responded to the court order on May 12 with a letter to the plaintiffs’ attorneys saying that a review would be done but offered no timeline.
The latest letter indicates the review is now beginning and will be conducted with the help of Markus, as well as two outside consultants.
“Additional experts may be retained throughout the course of the review as needed,” Allen-McMillan wrote. “The experts will collaborate with the Department to examine the Lakewood School District’s operations and performance in several key areas, including educational policy, special education, administration and governance, and accounting.”
State education commissioner claims more information is needed
In the May 12 letter to Tractenberg and Lang, Allen-McMillan argued that the current data related to the case only goes up to the 2018-2019 school years, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic that affected both school funding and practices.
She contends more updated research is needed to properly create a new formula for Lakewood state aid in the future.
Two years ago, an administrative law judge ruled in the case that Lakewood public school students were not receiving a “thorough and efficient” education.
In a nonbinding decision, Judge Susan Scarola recommended in that 2021 ruling that Allen-McMillan conduct a needs assessment of the school district’s ability to meet its obligations and make “appropriate recommendations to the district.”
The decision did not require the commissioner to make any changes, but gave her support for pursuing a study and altering Lakewood’s state aid if needed.
In July 2021, the commissioner acknowledged a review of the district’s educational programs and funding situation had been conducted, but she said it did not provide any evidence that changes were needed in funding or that students were not receiving the proper education as required by law.
Six months later, Lang and Tractenberg appealed Allen-McMillan’s decision not to seek changes in the funding formula.
Lakewood’s unique situation sparks calls for new aid approach
The sticking point for Lang and other funding advocates has been how Lakewood’s state funding is assessed given its unusual situation as a public school district that serves tens of thousands of nonpublic students who live in the community.
The district has had annual budget deficits in recent years that have forced administrators to take out tens of millions of dollars in state loans, including a pending request for a $93 million loan to meet expenses in the coming school year.
The district still owes more than $137 million in state loans dating to the 2014-15 school year when $4.5 million was borrowed.
The state funding formula, which broadly sets each district’s needs based on overall public school enrollment and assessed wealth in each district, has failed to provide Lakewood with its true need, Lang and other experts contend.
The key reason: more than 30,000 nonpublic students rely on the public school district for many services, most importantly busing.
The Court of Appeals ruling in March supported that contention.
“Lakewood is an outlier amongst other New Jersey school districts, in which most students are enrolled in public schools,” the court stated. “The non-public school students in Lakewood constitute nearly a quarter of all such students in our state.”
District officials filed their own lawsuit in 2019 claiming the state funding formula discriminated against students and failed to provide $30 million in necessary aid that year, but that case was dismissed in 2020.
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience who covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of three books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reach him at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp