Mike Davis

@byMikeDavis

JACKSON — More parents in the area are sending their children to private schools, leading to skyrocketing transportation costs for public school districts, which are required to pay the bills.

Such expenses are up 357 percent in Jackson alone since the 2015-16 school year, while the districts of Brick, Toms River Regional and Howell are all seeing sharp increases — much of the growth attributed to the ever-expanding number of religious schools in neighboring Lakewood, whose own public school district has faced fiscal crisis in recent years partly because of multi-million-dollar transportation costs.

Lakewood district officials have said they may be forced to lay off scores of teachers and cut other programs, in the absence of a financial bailout from the state, to close an estimated $15 million deficit, some of it linked to the cost of transporting students to non-public schools.

The increases come during a time of renewed debate over the separation of church and state, with the U.S. Supreme Court last week hearing a Missouri case involving the denial of state grant dollars to a Christian preschool. In New Jersey, a state law requires public school districts to transport non-public school students or reimburse parents for transportation costs.

RELATED: Lakewood schools still face teacher layoffs, budget cuts

If the district can't afford a bus, it can instead reimburse parents for transportation costs, up to $884 for each student. Parents often use those funds to pay for transportation arranged by the non-public school.

The cost of those payments by public school districts have increased rapidly in recent years, an Asbury Park Press investigation found:

Jackson expects to pay more than $610,000 in reimbursements to the families of 690 non-public school students in the 2017-18 school year, four times the amount paid in the 2015-16 school year.

Brick's total for such reimbursements jumped from less than $41,000 to nearly $115,000 over the last three years, now distributed to families of 826 students.

In Toms River, reimbursements are estimated to hit $220,000 for the 2017-18 school year, a 39 percent increase from three years ago.

The Howell school district has tentatively budgeted $197,000 for reimbursements during the 2017-18 school year, an increase of more than 61 percent over the current school year.

Most districts transport at least some non-public school students on buses, but only when it makes financial sense, administrators said. For example, the Brick school district expects a $20,000 decrease in its reimbursements next year because it will stop payments to families of students attending Calvary Academy, a Christian school in Lakewood.

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Instead, the district will offer to bus those students.

"We have enough children attending. Because of the number of kids, it's more effective to provide busing," Brick school district business administrator James Edwards said.

By the numbers: JACKSON

787: children transported to non-public schools

children transported to non-public schools $610,100: reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport

reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport 357% : increase in reimbursements over three years

increase in reimbursements over three years $153: how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation

how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation $19: how much of your school tax bill goes to reimbursement payments to families

Jackson has been hit the hardest among Ocean County's largest school districts. It expects to transport nearly 800 students to non-public schools next year. The number of students receiving reimbursement has tripled over three years.

Transportation represents about 3.6 percent of the district’s $139 million budget, about $153 of an average Jackson taxpayer’s school tax bill.

About $19 of that tax bill goes directly toward reimbursing parents of non-public school students.

Jackson schools Superintendent Stephen Genco said the main factor behind the increased transportation payments over the last few years has been the influx of Orthodox Jewish families, whose children often attend private Lakewood yeshivas. But it's not the only factor, he said.

“It fluctuates. It really does,” Genco said. “When we were at our highest enrollment, there was high aid in lieu (reimbursement) numbers – and they weren’t going to Jewish yeshiva schools.”

Court decision

Transporting non-public school students is the New Jersey wrinkle at the center of a church-state debate that’s lasted more than 70 years. In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the New Jersey law allowing the Ewing Township school board to transport Catholic school students was valid, despite complaints from a local tax advocate.

MORE: Changing faces of Jackson

Even though the court decision cemented the transportation system that exists today, Everson v. Board of Education is largely remembered for the justices’ strict interpretation of the separation of church and state.

“It really emphasized the image of a high wall of separation between church and state, and that’s obviously been eroded in all sorts of ways over the years,” said Perry Dane, a professor at Rutgers Law School in Camden. “But at the same time, it said transportation is one of those general services that government can provide, as long as it does it on an equal basis.”

By the numbers: TOMS RIVER

736: children transported to non-public schools

children transported to non-public schools $220,000: reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport

reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport 139% : increase in reimbursements over three years

increase in reimbursements over three years $162: how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation

how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation $2: how much of your school tax bill goes to reimbursements

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That question has been at the center of a courtesy busing crisis in Lakewood.

More than 75 percent of school-age children in Lakewood attend non-public schools, a wide majority going to one of the dozens of Jewish schools in town. It’s an annual $15 million endeavor that has left the public school district in dire financial straits.

Last year, Gov. Chris Christie signed into law a new three-year program aimed specifically at Lakewood, in which the district will send all aid in lieu payments to a school busing consortium. The state will pay for about 17 percent of each aid in lieu payment, costing about $2.4 million per year.

EDITORIAL: Where's the outrage over Lakewood?

The law was panned by some Lakewood activists, who said the public district still needed to bear some responsibility to provide courtesy busing to public school children who would otherwise have to walk to school.

George Kneisser, executive director of the organization NJ Citizens for Property Tax Reform, said the recent increase in New Jersey's gas tax will likely increase busing costs, which could expand school budgets and raise local property taxes. But Kneisser also said it seems fair that parents who pay these property taxes and do not take direct advantage of public school receive some transportation aid.

One case could reopen the church-state debate. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments from the Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, which has cried foul after the state excluded it from a grant program that funded playground resurfacing.

MORE: Missouri playground at center of church-state case

The Missouri Constitution prohibits funneling money to religious institutions. The court is expected to rule later this year.

By the numbers: BRICK

826: children transported to non-public schools

children transported to non-public schools $114,920: reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport

reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport 283% : increase in reimbursements over three years

increase in reimbursements over three years $153: how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation

how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation $19: how much of your school tax bill goes to reimbursements

A favorable decision for Trinity Lutheran Church could have a twofold effect, Dane said. It would set precedence to put public dollars into religious institutions, but it might come with the caveat of government oversight. Would Trinity's preschool be required to accept non-Christian students?

“It becomes a little more complicated because clearly, we don’t believe in a system where government should just outright subsidize religious activities,” Dane said.

MORE: Supreme Court ruling could affect yeshiva grant

There's at least one Lakewood connection with the Trinity case: Last year, the state appellate court invalidated a $10.6 million grant to the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva in Lakewood, citing a state constitutional ban on funding religious institutions.

Many of the yeshivas attended by Lakewood children focus almost entirely on Jewish studies. "Day schools," such as Trinity Lutheran, roughly split religious and general studies in half, Dane said.

“Could Lakewood, in a financial crisis, decide not to provide busing to any private schools? Legally, probably,” Dane said. “Now, politically? That’s impossible.”

By the numbers: HOWELL

$197,000: reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport

reimbursements paid to families of students the district can't afford to transport 177% : increase in reimbursements over three years

increase in reimbursements over three years $170: how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation

how much of your school tax bill goes to transportation $6: how much of your school tax bill goes to reimbursements

Mike Davis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com