We recently opined on the untenable position of the 5,500 Hispanic, Black and poor students in the Lakewood School District. As a result of legally required payments (e.g. transportation) to the 50,000 private Yeshiva students in the district, over half of the Lakewood school budget is diverted away from the public school students, whose dropout rates and lagging performance metrics are alarming.

A recent report by New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonprofit dedicated to economic, social and racial justice, adds another dimension to that problem. According to NJPP, the very per-pupil formula that underlies basic funding for districts and is intended to address inequities between poor and wealthy school systems in itself underfunds them. In other words, the public school students in Lakewood and similarly situated districts are behind the proverbial eight-ball even before the statutory mandated payments to private schools are deducted. That is a result of the current funding formula under the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 (SFRA), which NJPP and others conclude is outdated because it is based on state data, and because outcome goals for students have become more rigorous in the intervening decades. That combination results in inadequate basic funding of public education, especially in the highest poverty districts. NJPP recommends that the legislative direct the Joint Committee on Public Schools to hold hearings on adjusting the basic school funding formula. We second that motion. Although that is a complicated undertaking we also suggest that the committee begin its work by taking a smaller bite and addressing the Lakewood situation.

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