Murphy administration seeks state takeover of Lakewood schools

In one of its final acts before leaving office next week, the Murphy administration is seeking a state takeover of the financially distressed Lakewood public school system — a dramatic step that could strip the locally elected school board of authority and install a state-appointed Superintendent with sweeping powers, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

The bid follows years of mounting deficits, spiraling transportation and special-education costs, and repeated state loans that Lakewood has been unable to repay. Officials say the district’s structural problems have grown so severe that the current governance model is no longer sustainable.

In the 2024 general election, Republican Jack Ciattarelli carried Lakewood with 90% of the vote, winning the township by nearly 33,000 votes — a lopsided margin that had little impact on Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill’s fourteen-point statewide victory.

An Order to Show Cause is expected to be filed today by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education, Kevin Dehmer.  The move, with six days left in Murphy’s term, appears to insulate the incoming Democratic governor, Sherrill, from having to take the action herself.

Lakewood is unlike any other community in New Jersey.  Over 40,000 students attend more than 180 private schools — almost all Orthodox Jewish — while roughly 5,000 are enrolled in the public school district. The gap is the widest in the state; New Jersey’s private-school enrollment average hovers around 14%.

The local Board of Education spends more on busing for private schools than on classroom instruction.  Advocates say public-school children – primarily from communities of color — are bearing the brunt of a system not designed for their needs.  Public schools have crowded classrooms and lower test scores.

Lakewood has run annual multi-million-dollar deficits for more than a decade.  To stay open each year, the district relies on repeated “loan” bailouts from the state, many of which cannot realistically be repaid.

Critics say the system is functionally insolvent, with no sustainable path under current governance, and that the system is built to collapse under the volume of mandated private-school transportation.

Additionally, Lakewood sends a high number of special-education students to private placements, many of which are out of district, and some at very high cost.  A 2014 state investigation raised concerns about inadequate oversight of special-education contractors, questionable approvals for private special-ed providers, and potential conflicts of interest; Gov. Chris Christie declined a state takeover at the time.

Sherrill has publicly supported the use of a state monitor in Montclair, her hometown, where officials are grappling with extraordinary financial problems.

Other school districts have faced state takeovers in the past: Christie’s did so in the city of Camden in 2013, and earlier takeovers occurred in Newark and Paterson in the 1990s, and in Jersey City in 1989.   In those cases, returning to full local control took more than a decade.

If the Murphy administration’s petition succeeds, Lakewood could face a similar long-term horizon under state oversight.

The move will put a strain on Assemblyman Avi Schnall (D-Lakewood), a Democrat who has twice won one of the state’s most Republican legislative districts with decisive support from the township’s Orthodox Jewish community.

Murphy was endorsed by the Vaad, a powerful group of Orthodox Jewish religious leaders, in his 2021 re-election, though Ciattarelli still won the township by a wide margin.