U.S. Senator Andy Kim is concerned about the plight of students enrolled in Asbury Park Public Schools. At a meeting last week at St. Stephen AME Zion Church, a mile from the district, he spoke of the challenges to students there , which he ascribed to lack of resources. “They are getting rid of elective classes there because they don’t have enough resources to be able to do it. They are getting rid of sports programs… the students there just didn’t feel like they were — at all — getting the kind of education that they deserve.”

No argument there: For decades students enrolled in this tiny district have been cheated out of academic opportunities available in more functional districts.

But, with all due respect to Sen. Kim, the challenges in Asbury Park schools have nothing to do with a lack of resources.

Back in 2017, the state allotted Asbury Park students $42,382 per year, one of the highest allotments in the state. The results of those ample resources? At Dr. Martin Luther King Middle School, which served students grade 6-8, 12.6% of students demonstrated grade level proficiency in reading; math proficiency rates were so low the state redacted them. At Asbury Park High School, four out of five students couldn’t read at grade level and, again, the DOE redacted math scores. Forty percent of students were chronically absent yet the graduation rate was 83%. That inflated graduation rate was why Gov. Phil Murphy said he selected Asbury Park Superintendent Lamont Repollet as his Education Commissioner.

(It was Repollet, by the way, who implemented the “64 Floor,” a scheme which forbid teachers from giving students a grade lower then 64. This scaffolded the pretense of student success, only debunked through objective state standardized tests. )

Sen. Kim is right that Asbury Park has lost money: state aid is dependent on how many kids attend school in the district and over the last six years enrollment has dropped by about 25% (from 1,837 students in 2017 students to 1,440 students in 2025 as parents vote with their feet). That $42K is now $33K, still more than most districts (the state average is $21,199) but, sure, the district has to make some cuts, especially given the loss of temporary federal Covid aid. Asbury Park is also burdened with a dearth of affordable housing due to rapid gentrification, an important focus of Kim’s remarks.

Yet the challenges faced by Asbury Park students have nothing to do with whether the state provides adequate resources to effectively educate students. As Evan Scott wrote yesterday, “the method we use for determining ‘adequate’ school funding is divorced from what actually drives student learning gains.”

What if our new Education Commissioner Dr. Lily Laux stepped up and required districts to adopt high-quality curricula backed up with DOE-led coaches and high-dosage tutoring? What if New Jersey dosed itself with some Narcan to quell its addiction to local control and emulated states that have tolerated top-down data-driven mandates for accountability and transparency?

“We pride ourselves as a state in having some of the top, if not the best, public schools in the country,” said Sen. Kim, “and they deserve better here in Asbury.”

Yes, they do deserve better. But until we stop equating money with student learning, Asbury Park students are trapped.