LAKEWOOD - State tax dollars bought creationist textbooks for private religious school students here, the Asbury Park Press has found, even as the public school district struggled for millions of dollars in funding.

Books for religious teaching are not supposed to be purchased with state grant money, but one of the private school texts, titled "Fundamentals of Life Science," promotes a "greater appreciation of the greatness of Hashem and His magnificent creations," according to the book's cover posted on Amazon.com. Hashem, a transliteration of Hebrew, is a word used in place of God.

About 60 copies of the 198-page book written by Rabbi Yaakov Lubin were purchased last year through the state grant program.

The Press asked the New Jersey Department of Education, which administers the textbook grant program, about foreign language texts and the books with religious themes — and whether they were allowed under state rules. In response, a department spokesman said state staff were reviewing how textbook grant funds were spent in Lakewood.

"I can tell you that we are looking into it," education department spokesman Michael Yaple said, adding he could not provide further information about the review.

Textbooks are purchased with about $1.6 million in state grants allocated to the public school district but earmarked to support Lakewood's 130 private schools. The vast majority of the schools are affiliated with the Orthodox Jewish faith.

The Press reviewed more than 370 pages of records documenting every textbook purchased through the grant program for private schools in Lakewood in the 2017-2018 school year.

The Press found more than 4,500 books and workbooks that teach Hebrew or Yiddish reading or writing — but no other foreign languages — and a small number, like "Fundamentals of Life Science," with clear religious themes, according to listings on Amazon.com, the book covers and publishers' websites. Dozens of copies of a history textbook that teaches "through the lens of God's redemptive plan" have also been purchased in the last five years, the Press found.

Those books are among thousands of mathematics and history texts, and outnumber 70 copies of the literary staple, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell.

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Decades of federal court precedent have upheld the separation of church and state protected by the First Amendment, barring officially sponsored prayer and proselytizing in the nation's public schools.

When it comes to private religiously affiliated schools, there's an important distinction. While government funding of secular education in religious schools is allowed, subsidizing religious education is not, according to Perry Dane, a law professor at Rutgers who specializes in religion and the law.

“There's a fairly strong consensus, however, that the one thing the government cannot do at least explicitly is finance the religious functions of religious schools any more than it could explicitly subsidize the religious functions of churches or synagogues or mosques," Dane said.

In New Jersey and other states public funds flow to religious and secular private schools. More than $100 million was spent last year to provide textbooks, security, technology, nurses and other services in the 1,000 private schools across the Garden State — institutions whose curriculum is not regulated nor overseen by any local or state agency.

Private schools in Lakewood get the largest share of funds, a total this year of nearly $30 million for more than 130 schools — more than 10 percent of all private schools in the state. More than $22 million more from local taxpayer revenues will be spent on private-school transportation.

The textbook program allows local school boards to loan textbooks to private schools within their boundaries as long as the books are "used in any public elementary or secondary school of the state or are approved by any board of education," according to state law.

The state education department distributes the funds — $53 per private school student — for the textbook grant program to the public school districts, which take orders from the private schools. Staff at the local district approve, buy and distribute the textbooks.

A look inside two books

"Fundamentals of Life Science" is for middle school students and covers cells and ecology, according to Amazon. But its back cover credits those creations to God.

"Hashem made our world in such an awesome way so that we could easily recognize His ultimate wisdom and kindness," the cover reads. "With advances of modern science, our generation is privileged to know about more Nifla'os Hashem than ever before." Nifla'os Hashem means "God's wonders."

Rabbi Avi Schnall, state director for the Orthodox Jewish advocacy group Agudath Israel and chairman of the state education department's nonpublic schools advisory committee, said there was a distinction between religious themes in a book and teaching religion itself.

"If the book is religious studies and it's used for science, then that’s a problem," Schnall said. "If it's one line (about religion) ... I wouldn't classify that as teaching religion."

The state, as well as district staff, approve all textbook purchases, according to Lakewood public schools' attorney Michael Inzelbuch. The Lakewood Public School District hired a new person to oversee the textbook program this year, Ben Lieberman.

Asked about the science book's creationist description, Inzelbuch pointed to another textbook purchased this month for the township's only private Christian school, Calvary Academy.

Lieberman initially denied Calvary Academy's request to buy Heritage Studies 1: The New World, which teaches colonization and early American history "through the lens of God's redemptive plan," according to emails provided by Inzelbuch.

Calvary Academy Principal Stephanie Cruz went to the state after the books were denied, noting the books had been purchased for five years without a problem and providing an assurance the texts were not used to teach religion.

The state coordinator of nonpublic school services, Gregory Kocher, ultimately approved the books, according to Cruz.

"Mr. Kocher was instrumental in getting our textbook orders approved and his efforts were greatly appreciated," Cruz wrote in an email to the Press. "Overall, I was very pleased with how quickly the state acted on this and we do have the books we need."

Inzelbuch defended the district's purchases even while pointing to the state as the ultimate arbiter of what textbooks qualify.

He said Monday that providing Hebrew and Yiddish books was like buying any foreign language book. He flipped through several of the books, translating certain words and saying there were no religious themes. See inside those books in the video at the top of this story.

Inzelbuch was not aware of any state review of the district's textbook purchases but said the district would provide any information the state requested.

Funding battle

In 2016-2017, the state allocated $7.7 million to provide textbooks to private schools statewide, according to state data provided by the Newark-based Education Law Center, which advocates for public school funding.

Funding any private school in the state, regardless of any religious affiliation, with taxpayer money has come under fire of the Education Law Center, which recommends money going instead to the financially struggling public schools instead of private schools with little oversight.

"The Legislature appropriates these funds with no requirement that they be used to support a basic curriculum that would prepare students in essential skills necessary to graduate and be prepared to make a contribution to our society and our economy," Executive Director David Sciarra said.

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But private schools are entitled to funds for textbooks and other services, Schnall said, because parents who send their children there also pay taxes.

"Private school parents pay their fair share in taxes, and a large portion of those taxes go to education expenses," Schnall said. "The way we always say it is the money follows the child."

More than 34,500 students returned to private schools in Lakewood this year supported by about $53 million in funding — equal to nearly a third of the public schools' annual budget. That funding provides support services and busing for the township's private school children.

Overall, those support services come at a significantly lower cost to taxpayers than it would take to educate all school-aged children in Lakewood. Five times as many children here attend private schools than public ones, and the district has no additional facilities to take on additional classes.

Schnall said state funding is about $250 per private school student, not including transportation. Educating a public school student in Lakewood cost $13,900 in the last school year, according to state education data.

Subsidizing private schools with textbooks and other services is an expense that has nearly doubled in the last five years as the township's population has grown, deepening the public schools' budget crisis and forcing the schools to take a $28 million loan, the largest in the state in recent history.

Stacey Barchenger: @sbarchenger; sbarchenger@gannettnj.com; 732-427-0114

