R' Aron (Arthur) Lang has tirelessly devoted countless hours for over a decade advocating for a fairer school funding for Lakewood.
Throughout most of the ordeal, the Lakewood Board of Education - which, ironically, stands to gain the most from this litigation - has not only refused to join hands with Lang, they have even fought in court against his efforts!
All throughout their vehement opposition, the Board of Ed, along with Town officials, have confidently assured us that if we sit quietly, the State will magically pull through.
Now, over one year since Rabbi Avi Schnall's election to the New Jersey Assembly, the Board of Education is coming to terms with the fact that they are currently operating in a cash deficit, having received no loan for the current school year (2024-2025). Moreover, the state-appointed monitor is even requiring the District to make use of restricted funds to cover the shortfall in the general fund.
At this point, the Board of Education has finally come out of the closet and acknowledged that the only way to fight to fairer funding is to join Mr. Lang's efforts.
To that end, the Board has filed a motion to join in the case as intervenors. However, seeing that this will actually delay the overall appeal, Mr. Lang is now opposing the Board's efforts.
Mr. Lang's long time 2 arguments are; 1) Lakewood's students are not receiving a constitutionally sound education (known as a Thorough and Efficient education, or T&E), and; 2) the fault of this lies squarely in the fact that New Jersey's School Funding Formula (SFRA) is unconstitutional as applied to Lakewood's unique demographic situation (which has many nonpublic students who need transportation but whom are not counted towards funding).
Succeeding on both of these arguments is key to be able to force State officials to finally provide fairer funding to Lakewood.
After many years of fighting in the Office of Administrative Law, a judge agreed with Mr. Lang as to his first point, but not with his second point. Instead, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) directed the Education Commissioner to review Lakewood’s School District and recommend how they can cut spending.
Following this ruling, the then-Commissioner issued a Final Agency Decision completely reversing the ALJ's ruling, claiming that Lakewood did provide T&E and therefore it was not necessary to review Mr. Lang main argument as to the constitutionality of the funding formula.
As the news was broken here on FAA News, in a massive win for Lakewood's taxpayers and students, on March 6, 2023, the Appellate Division reversed this decision, finding that the Commissioner erroneously disregarded the record before the ALJ that Lakewood does not provide T&E.
Having reached this determination, the 3-judge panel remanded the matter back to the Commissioner to do a "thorough review of the most substantive argument - that the funding structure of the SFRA was unconstitutional as applied to Lakewood's unique demographic situation."
The result: On April 1, 2024, the new acting commissioner issued a Final Agency Decision completely denying Mr. Lang's arguments. Instead, our financial problems lie mainly with the facts that we are "undertaxed," and that the Board of Education is "mismanaged," the Commissioner asserted.
In response, as previously reported here on FAA News, just 17 days after the issuance of this final agency decision, Mr. Lang filed a new appeal to the Appellate Division seeking to overturn the Commissioner's Final Agency Decision.
Board of Education Attorney Michael Inzelbuch's motion petition states:
The Board joins appellants as to the SFRA's underfunding as a significant cause of Lakewood's strained ability to provide T&E to its students.
The Board represents that its brief if it is allowed to intervene would generally follow the legal arguments in the briefing filed by the Appellants in this matter.
Curiously, the petition then also states:
Further, the Board's interest is superior to that of the Plaintiffs and the Board is in a better position to inform this court as to the conditions within the district from the inception of this action to the present date. The Plaintiffs in this matter do not ultimately hold the same interests as the Board.
Mr. Lang has filed opposition to the motion, highlighting procedurally that the court rules do not appear to permit for direct intervention in the Appellate Division unless the party previously participated in the lower courts.
More substantially, Mr. Lang is opposing the motion as the time it will take for the court to adjudicate this motion as well as provide time for the Board to submit their appeal briefs will significantly delay adjudication on his overall appeal - which is the exact opposite of what is best for Lakewood.
It's important to highlight that Mr. Lang is continuing his heroic efforts on behalf of Lakewood despite that he has left the District for a new job out of town.
To join the FAA News WhatsApp Status, click here.
4 comments:
The BOE and the State can argue all they want about who is more responsible for the failure of the school district.They should pick their own forum to prove their own case, but that is not my case. My case is about the next one hundred years, not the disaster of the last twenty. You can't finance a district of 50,000 on a budget designed for 5,000. A Lang
So, what is the timetable for you to win the case if the BOE is excluded vs. if they are added on?
We tried to get the process expedited but the Court put us in line with everyone else. We spoke to the schedule manager and it seems that we will get oral argument around May or June. If they are added on, we will still win, probably take longer, and the judges might get distracted (the lower court judge bought into the secondary argument of mismanagement) but then we will have to fight to adversaries with our argument that BOE incompetence is a red herring, like Prof. T. argued in Abbott concerning Newark and the urban districts, and it is just about the formula. Not about clearing Michael's or Dr. Winter's name. Amazing that I have to keep the efficacy of the BOE out, even minimize its effect, after wasting 21 years of my prime corporate and leadership abilities under the ignorance of the Igud bosses and BOE.
Thats Why we need to Fix the Formula
Post a Comment