The start of the 2018-2019 school year in the Jackson School District in New Jersey will include a public school bus system for more than 200 Orthodox Jewish children and others attending private schools.

This decision will result in reduced costs for reimbursing families whose children don’t have transportation to school.

Reimbursement for transportation is enforced by state law, with stipends amounting up to 1,000.000 per family, resulting in an increase in tax payer dollars for children to simply have a ride to school.

According to the Asbury Park News, the Jackson school district spent over $610,000 in aid in lieu of transportation for 690 private school students from Jackson in the 2017-2018 school year. This was four times the amount paid for the 2015-2016 school year.

The changing demographics in Lakewood called for more non-public school children to be provided with transportation. Public or not, all children in Lakewood fall within state Law.

Proponents of expanding the school transportation predict huge savings for tax payer dollars.

This is due in part to an increase of children attending Orthodox Jewish Schools in Lakewood, and a significant influx of Orthodox Jewish families. This demographic will continue to influence the public school transportation system rather than the district paying stipends to families.

According to App News, the total cost of providing a school bus for the Orthodox Jewish school students won’t be determined until specific routes are assigned.

Providing transportation for private school students has sparked a 70-year church-state debate in New Jersey going back to a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court Ruling. According to casebrief.com, a petitioner filed suit against the Board of Education, disputing the reimbursement of transportation costs to parents of children who attended private schools. The taxpayer argued that the New Jersey reimbursement act favors an established religion by reimbursing families. The New Jersey Court of Appeals ruled that the reimbursement act did not violate the constitution, and the United States (Supreme Court) granted certiorari to consider the issue.

By: Christopher Vasquez