The True Cause of Lakewood Public School District’s $12M Deficit

Watch Rabbi Schnall speak about how the current school funding formula is failing Lakewood’s students.

The Lakewood Public School District’s budget deficit has garnered much press, some positive and mostly negative, in the weeks leading up to the recent $6.2 million referendum. The proposed tax hike was overwhelmingly voted down, with 99% of voters opposing the measure.

While some people attempted to blame the deficit on the school board, Agudath Israel’s New Jersey director Rabbi Avi Schnall authored an op-ed explaining that the real problem is the state’s school funding formula. The current formula does not acknowledge the fact that nearly 80% of the township’s students – more than 25,000 school children – attend private schools. By failing to take those children into account, the State of New Jersey has created the $12 million deficit.
Click here to read Rabbi Schnall’s op-ed