Lakewood's new assemblyman eyes education funding changes for 2024 NJ legislative session

LAKEWOOD – Incoming Assembly member Avi Schnall has made no secret that he wants to see more funding for private schools and choice options for nonpublic school parents.

As far back as 2016, Schnall, the longtime director of Agudah Israel’s New Jersey office, supported such changes, speaking that year at a Schools Choice Week event in Newark.

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Now that he’s been elected to the legislature with an upset win over incumbent Republican Edward Thomson in the 30^th legislative district, Schnall, a Democrat, is poised to renew that effort in Trenton.

“We don’t have a plan yet but that is something that is important to us,” Schnall said when asked about school choice and vouchers. “Absolutely.”

Schnall’s comments during the short campaign made clear he was looking in the direction of such programs for private school students to receive public funding.

“We have the opportunity to have someone in the majority party to go and coalesce and gather all of the other people who have supported school choice in the previous year to bring them together,” he said in an online interview posted on YouTube weeks ago. “Bring it to the forefront and fight for it, we could get this done.”

In an interview with Hamodia.com, a Jewish news outlet, the day after his victory, Schnall said that school choice was “something that we do believe is doable.”

Schnall’s election made history in several ways.

First, he becomes the first Democrat to win in the mostly GOP stronghold in 30 years, taking down Thomson, who had served in the seat since 2017.

He also becomes the second Lakewood resident serving in the district, which is currently represented in the state Senate by Robert Singer, a 30-year Republican veteran and former Lakewood mayor.

And as an Orthodox Jew, Schnall will be only the second such legislator in the state, joining Democratic Assemblyman Gary Schaer of Passaic County.

“I think that it speaks to the frustration of not being properly represented all of these years, it was time for a change,” Schnall said about his support as a Democrat in the district that is nearly 2 to 1 Republican. “I’m not looking at any community more than another.”

But one of his top issues, education funding, may clearly be aimed at helping Lakewood’s largest population, Orthodox parents who send their youngsters to private schools.

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“School choice and education,” he said when asked how it would be targeted. “It’s education as a whole. Lakewood, which is the fourth largest city in the state. We have a school board deficit of almost $200 million.”

Schnall referred to the Lakewood Schools’ ongoing state loan debt, which will soon reach $173 million after the district borrows another $50 million from Trenton, a loan announced last week.

“The whole funding formula is a state funding issue, that is a state project,” Schnall said. “The deficit is based on the funding program not recognizing 50,000 children who are not visible — get them visible. The funding formula should reflect what is going on. All the children in the district get their fair share.”

Schnall cited the 50,000 private school students from Lakewood, most of whom attend yeshivas and other Orthodox schools and whose parents receive no tuition assistance.

The cost burden affects the public schools that are required to provide transportation and other services to many of the private school students, but do not receive enough state aid to cover those needs, critics contend.

Singer, who said he is ready to work with Schnall despite their party differences, believes he will have a difficult time getting school choice and some other issues handled as a Democrat.

“I think he’ll have a harder time only because the Democratic philosophy goes against a lot of things the community believes, whether it is abortion or their philosophy on what should be taught in public schools to a lot of other issues,” Singer said. “I support vouchers 100%. If he has a way of bringing vouchers, God bless him, I’m here. I would be curious to see how it would get done.”

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Assemblyman Schaer welcomed a fellow Orthodox person to the legislature and said he would support more parental choice funding, not just for Jewish students but all private school attendees.

“I would assume that we would have very similar thoughts on the matter,” Schaer said. “I believe that the state has the obligation to ensure that all of its children attend quality education institutions and are afforded those rights and privileges.”

Schnall also cited infrastructure improvements as a major issue when he takes office, noting the need for upgrades to Route 9, and Highways 70 and 88.

“It needs a lot of help,” he said about Lakewood’s major roadways. “A massive state highway going through the largest town, very few street lights, very few turning lanes and the state is what is controlling that. We need proper crosswalks, and the list goes on and on.”

Singer echoed that view.

“I’ve supported and done things to get the dualization of Route 9 and they have taken it away,” Singer said. “These are tough issues. We are not just competing with Ocean County, we are competing with the State of New Jersey.”

Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience who covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of three books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reach him at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lakewood schools: Avi Schnall to push education funding in Trenton NJ