A new group called Lakewood UNITE, which represents minority children who attend Lakewood Public Schools, met with Ed. Comm. Chris Cerf yesterday to ask for help from the NJ DOE because, said Pastor Earl Jackson, “The money is coming in (to the district) but it is not going to the public school.”

How does that work? According to an article in today’s Asbury Park Press, there are about 20,000+ school-age children in Lakewood, but only 4,447 go to Lakewood Public Schools. The rest of the children, about 15,000 – 18,000 (depending upon whom you ask) go to Orthodox Jewish yeshiva, and the district provides busing, supplies, special education services for classified students, and even pays rent for afterschool activities for eligible children. That’s 400 private bus routes per day (boys and girls ride in separate buses).

In fact, Lakewood Public Schools allocates about $20 million per year out of a $100 million budget to transportation. In addition, as the New York Times has reported, many of the Jewish students who are enrolled in Lakewood Public Schools are classified as eligible for special education services, and Lakewood sends most of them to a school called The School For Hidden Intelligence, which “is known locally as a school for Orthodox families.” Annual tuition is about $100,000.

The impact on the regular enrollment – 80% Hispanic – is enormous. The graduation rate is 37%. On the high school assessment test in math, 67% of kids fail. The superintendent, the seventh in four years, just quit. This year alone the district has gone through three business administrators. Ten percent of the faculty leave each year. The Board is almost entirely manned by representatives of the Orthodox Jewish community.

According to DOE data the average cost per pupil is $12,320. But the comparative cost per pupil is $19,652. That huge discrepancy reflects the amount of resources that are devoted to non-public school students.

Hey – their parents pay taxes too, right? And kids with disabilities are eligible for suitable placements. Meanwhile, though, the kids who aren’t represented by the partisan Board get a raw deal.

Comm. Cerf plans to meet with the Board as a first step in addressing Lakewood’s woes.