Put brakes on Lakewood's runaway busing costs: Bergmann

Randy Bergmann | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Lakewood's busing boondoggle seen from one corner in one hour One intersection shows the busing bonanza of Lakewood Township

The numbers in Staff Writer Stacey Barchenger’s in-depth look at private school busing in Lakewood, "How Lakewood buses 32,000 kids to class each day," were mind-boggling. The number of private students being transported. The number of routes and miles traversed. The number of dollars being spent on getting those 32,000 private school students on 1,600 routes to 140 schools.

Perhaps most eye-popping was the staggering growth in the numbers of students being bused and the growing cost to the public school district to do so. In 2012, about 18,500 students were transported to 85 Orthodox private schools, with a school transportation budget of $19.5 million. Today, 32,000 students are bused to 130 Orthodox schools, with a transportation budget of $29 million.

Without dramatic changes in how busing is administered and funded, busing costs will continue to spiral out of control, putting even more intense pressure on the public school district budget. This year the district was bailed out by a $28 million state loan. Just two years ago, the deficit was $12 million. Busing costs had a lot to do with that. The trend is unsustainable.

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The state-authorized creation of the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority in 2016 helped stabilize the costs for private school students and parents. But it has done nothing to slow the cost trajectory of private school busing for the public school district. Given the explosive growth in Lakewood, particularly of its school-aged Orthodox population, it would be naïve to think the problem is going to get better any time soon without major changes in how busing is funded.

Township officials have refused to take the steps necessary to slow population growth in Lakewood or make the infrastructure improvements that can make walking or riding a bike to school a safe alternative to busing. And the Orthodox leadership has failed to make changes to busing protocols that could make busing more efficient and cost-effective. If the reluctance on the part of the township and Orthodox leadership continues, Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature must impose changes to keep busing costs under control, as well as the costs to the state to bail out the public school district with loans it will never be able to repay.

Here are some of the steps it must seriously consider:

• Stop funding bus routes that transport only boys or only girls, as is the case in Lakewood.

• Stop funding inefficient bus routes. In Lakewood, more than half of all stops made each day pick up or drop off a single child. That's absurd.

• Require that central bus pickup and dropoff points be established to help reduce the number of routes.

• Provide financial disincentives for the profusion of different school starting and dismissal times. There are 630 afternoon bus routes and at least 45 dismissal times between 1:45 p.m. to 9:50 p.m. each day.

• Increase the fee assessed for private school transportation.

• Consider severely limiting, or ending, school transportation funding for private and/or public transportation. Several states allow districts to charge parents fees to transport their children to school.

In the absence of meaningful action at the local level to address busing costs, the state must finally act.

Randy Bergmann: rbergmann@app.com; 732-643-4034; @appopinion.