Jackson partners with Lakewood busing consortium to transport private school population

JACKSON — A growing private school population prompted the Jackson School District to partner with neighboring Lakewood on a new busing deal that will affect thousands of students.

Jackson's Board of Education approved a plan this week to bus its non-public school students through the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority beginning in the 2024-25 school year. The transportation authority is a nonprofit organization that transports Lakewood's more than 50,000 students.

In the new school year, the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority will also bus Jackson's more than 4,800 non-public school students.

The deal will replace a system in which Jackson's private school parents received aid-in-lieu of transportation from Jackson School District. Under New Jersey law, private school families who live more than 2 miles from a student's school are entitled to transportation or aid-in-lieu of transportation from the local public school district.

Aid-in-lieu of transportation is capped at $1,165 for the 2023-24 school year in New Jersey.

The deal will help to consolidate transportation routes and reduce the workload of Jackson School District's transportation department, according to a notice posted online by the district. The cost to the school district – and by extension local taxpayers – will remain the same, school officials said in the notice.

The deal is also expected to benefit local private school families, who receive aid-in-lieu of transportation and who have struggled to find contractors willing to transport their student to school for a year for just $1,165, according to Jackson school officials

In addition, the thousands of contractors and parents who drive these Jackson students each day are increasing traffic on already busy roads, according to township officials.

"This change will remove the (Jackson) school district from the administrative overhead required to cut checks to thousands of families for transportation," Jackson Township Council President Jennifer Kuhn said in an email newsletter. "Under the consolidation, the LSTA (Lakewood Student Transportation Authority) which already manages routes for 50,000 students each day will absorb the administrative overhead and work to streamline routes and consolidate bus routes to lessen the number of buses on our roads."

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In Jackson, 4,893 students who currently attend non-public schools would qualify for transportation through the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority, according to Jackson School District spokeswoman Allison Erwin. Some of Jackson's private school students do not qualify, because they live within two miles of their elementary and middle schools or 2.5 miles from their high school.

Erwin said the transportation authority will bus Jackson students – not only to private schools in Lakewood and Jackson – but to schools located elsewhere, such as Donovan Catholic High School in Toms River.

Jackson Mayor Michael Reina, in the email newsletter, said the deal with the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority would bring more safety to Jackson private school students by providing one point of contact for police, school officials and the township's Department of Public Works.

Jackson Councilman Mordechai Burnstein said that while the deal is a win for township families, but he added that New Jersey lawmakers still need to address the problems facing private school transportation funding.

"We have been calling for the state to start providing transportation aid as this service is another unfunded state mandate that burdens everyone in town," Burnstein said in the email newsletter. "Transportation costs are skyrocketing because we have to abide by the state regulations, but if they are making us do this, they need to chip in more on the financial costs like they do in other parts of the state to accommodate unique educational situations."

Last month, New Jersey lawmakers passed a bill that allows nonprofit consortiums to form to help reduce costs for private school transportation. Prior to the bill's passage, only Lakewood was permitted to use such a consortium, due to the township's uniquely high number of private school students – totaling more than 40,000.

Related: How private school students will gain from new busing legislation

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jackson signs deal with Lakewood busing consortium to drive students