A recent article written by Josh Pruzansky, who is the New Jersey Director of Political Affairs and Public Policy for the Orthodox Union in New Jersey explained the need, and benefits of private(and public) school busing in New Jersey. All of his points were generally correct and valid and Josh should be commended for being at the forefront of trying to help the embattled parents of private school children in Lakewood that are paying property taxes, yet benefit little from the public school system.Unfortunately his explanations for the need to fund busing for private schoolchildren no longer applies to Lakewood.
The argument that we benefit little from the school system, so we should at least get busing has been repeated year after year for almost thirty years. The threat that we could enroll our children in public school, so the taxpayers should thank us, is as old as the town clock in the square. There is one serious flaw to this logic.
WE ARE THE TAXPAYERS, AND WE PAY FOR THE BUSING!
Yes, there was a time, not long ago, when there were thousands of children in the public school system. The parents of many of these children paid property tax. Although there were many in the Jewish community paying as well, the cost of private school and courtesy busing was shared by public and private school taxpayers. The cost of private school students that required busing was minimal to the overall cost of our public school system.
In the past ten years there has been a paradigm shift in the public and private school balance. As the Jewish community moved in, many Public school families moved. The public schools were left with one third of their students. Eventually the Hispanic population growth doubled the public school enrollment with the added cost of educating students that require English as a second Language(ESL). Added to that was now the cost of private busing which grew every year by approximately two thousand students.
Now we are in an entirely different situation. Most of the taxpayers do not use the public school system, yet fund it almost entirely. The children attending public school often live in rental homes that do not produce tax revenue commensurate with the cost of educating its tenants. Added to that is the cost of busing which has ballooned to 20 million dollars a year.The argument that we deserve busing for our tax money is ridiculous. We are paying for it ourselves, and we can't afford it. Perhaps the time has come to put an end to a wasteful ineffective system that has grown so large, it is no longer a help to the struggling taxpaying private school parents. Privatizing busing and allowing parents to pay for each child that uses it may cost more for taxpayers with many school age children, but the overall waste of a gargantuan busing system will be put to rest.
Of course there would be those that would not be able to afford the added cost of paying for busing. We could easily implement a system similar to the school lunch program to help pay for those that cannot afford it. By ridding ourselves of the out of control busing system we can prevent the waste from corruption and overcharging that always goes along with any service that is provided by a government agency. The BOE prides itself on appearing to save the taxpayer money, Now they need to actually save the taxpayers from themselves
while I do agree with most of your oppinions here ,there is one point you negected to speak about, Courtesy busing , the way the law reads ALL students both private and public have the right to busing within the guidline set by the state, beyond those guidlines if busing is supplied to those students it is considered courtesy busing which is an option and not a requirement . Most other townships that offer it at an expense to those families that use it . Lakewood can no longer ignore the ongoing burden to its taxpayers of the huge cost of this expense . The school budget has been consistantly voted down year after year and not one peep about removing this while the teachers of the public schools have gone for longer than two yaears without a contract . Its time for some new out of the box thinking when it comes to fixing the problems that have been plaguing the Lakewood schools and that would include looking what is an obvious place to trim expenses ~ Courtesy Busing
So now the board of education wants to control 75 buses and run their own transportation
This is the biggest joke I've heard and some time now
They could barely get their own act together and now they want to control 75 buses with routes?
Someone smoking the good stuff there
And I guarantee you someone is going to make a lot of money
I challenge anyone to tell me how many children receive courtesy bussing. I would say maybe 1-2%. Most people don't realize that if the child must cross a hazardous intersection to get to school, then it isn't courtesy bussing rather mandatory bussing. With Lakewood's horrible roads you'd be surprised how many yazardous intersections there are. I once got a copy from the boe of all hazardous intersections and the list is quite long. Therefore please stop bickering about courtesy bussing.
Where is settler it's so much more fun when he comments here about himself!!!!!
if the state deamed it a hazardous route it would not be considered "courtesy" not talking about that at all strickly what is considered "courtesy"
So what is the answer?
The ever increasing tax levee for busing is putting an unprecedented expense on all taxpayers in Lakewood Township. The time for compromise and thinking outside of the box is needed, less we tax ourselves out of existence.
I have confidence that Gus the Bus and this BOE can, with cooperation from all schools, maintain services and drastically reduce the cost of transportation. The problem will continue to increase each year, as the enrollment of NPS and PS grows.
If we choose to do nothing, that is what we will get. The squeeze will be on to find ways and means to reduce the tax levee, and attention will focus on discretionary spending and the big budget items.
Oh yes, we "MUST" provide courtesy busing for the children who have to cross hazardous roads to go to school if they are walking. HOWEVER, it is perfectly OK for the children to cross these same hazardous roads when they want to visit/play with the children who live there. When I went to school I had to walk a half mile, WITHOUT SIDEWALKS, just to get on the bus for an hour ride to Lakewood High School. Note - I'm still alive because I was taught how to walk in traffic. Hint - teach the children how to walk in traffic.
How will we save on taxes, while keeping the public schools strong?
We cut the over expenditure on District Headquarters, no bid contracts, and deliberate redirection of funds that have no return on investment.
Every child that does not get an education is most likely to be less self sufficient and a burden on society.
The fact that most families in Lakewood send to private schools shows the state that lakewood is a town with mostly rich people and needs less state funding. The state sees that majority people go to private schools and says "hey, there must be alot of rich people in lakewood"