Shannon Mullen

@MullenAPP

TRENTON - Lakewood's private schools are one step closer to gaining greater control over their students' busing.

The New Jersey Senate voted 22 to 8 Thursday to pass a bill that would cover the expense of busing all children attending Lakewood's private schools for the next three years, a change that would cost the state an estimated $2.4 million more per year, and roughly $1.8 million more from local taxpayers.

The legislation's sponsor is Sen. Robert W. Singer, R-Ocean, who said the measure was aimed at staving off the cancellation of free busing for some 7,000 private schoolchildren scheduled to take effect in September. Most attend the township's more than 100 private Orthodox Jewish yeshivas.

Those students currently receive "courtesy" busing through the school district, even though they live closer to their schools than the distance thresholds set by the state. Those limits are two miles for elementary pupils and 2.5 miles for high school students.

"This is about (the) safety of children getting to school," Singer said prior to the vote. "We need a helping hand."

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Faced with a $12 million budget deficit, the school district is eliminating courtesy busing altogether for the 2016-17 school year, a move that also affects some 3,000 children attending the township's public schools.

Singer's bill only addresses the private school component of the cancellation, a sore point for public school families and their advocates. It would create a three-year pilot program under which a new consortium of private schools would receive a lump sum payment from the district to cover their students' busing.

The payment would be calculated based on an annual allocation of $884 for each private school student who qualifies for mandatory free transportation. The state sets that rate as the maximum stipend parents or guardians currently receive when a school district is unable to provide a bus route for a child attending a public or private school who meets the state's requirements for free transportation.

The funding would come from a mix of local tax dollars and state aid. By law, the state bears the cost of providing mandated transportation above $735 per pupil, up to the $884 maximum.

With nearly 16,000 private school students now eligible for free transportation, the total annual payout works out to $14.1 million. Of that, local taxpayers would be obligated to pay $11.76 million, or 83 percent.

Private school leaders, who strongly support the pilot program, believe they can achieve cost savings through negotiating multi-year contracts with private bus companies, something school districts aren't permitted to do. The savings will be enough, they say, to cover the transportation costs of those private school students who currently receive courtesy busing. The bill stipulates that any leftover savings after busing is covered for private school courtesy busing students would be returned to the district.

"The upshot is that the Lakewood Board of Education and the public school administration will now have the ability to focus on the transportation needs of public school children exclusively. This is a true win-win," said Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, the head of the Igud Hamosdos, the council of private yeshiva leaders.

District officials, however, say their current busing contracts work out to roughly $625 per child, or $259 less per child than the bill provides. Tying the pilot program to the $884 amount, of which local taxpayers would pay $735, they warn, could wind up costing $4 million or more per year. Of that extra amount, approximately $1.8 million would have to come from local taxpayers, with the state picking up the rest, according to the district's calculations.

Complicating the analysis is the fact that the district doesn't yet know what its busing contracts for the 2016-17 school year will be. The district is also purchasing its own buses to pick up a portion of the routes.

Prior to Thursday's vote, Singer made reference to the township stepping forward to provide courtesy busing for public school students, but provided no details.

The Assembly is scheduled to vote its version of the bill Monday.

Shannon Mullen: 732-643-4278; smullen4@gannettnj.com