Cash-Strapped Schools Turn To Busing Fees

Boston (AP) - Lawmakers and school officials have a stark message for parents who think their taxes already pay for school bus transportation: No more free rides.

Cash-strapped public schools trying to hang on to their teachers are increasingly turning to busing fees to raise money. The move has angered parents and raised concerns that children may be forced to use more dangerous means - like walking - to get to school.

"It seems like this country can afford a lot of other things, but we can't send our students to school on buses?" asked Jane Million, spokeswoman for the National Association of Elementary School Principals. "To be able to get to school in a safe manner, we need to be able to provide that."

About a third of all school districts in Massachusetts already charge middle- and high-school students for busing. On Cape Cod, for example, the town of Barnstable raises $350,000 per year by charging $200 per child in grades 7 and higher.

Kids in kindergarten through sixth grade are entitled to free rides if they live at least two miles from school. But that may change soon as Massachusetts lawmakers warn communities and schools they will lose millions in state aid because of a $3 billion budget deficit.

Sally Forbes, a parent in Hingham, supported her school board's recent rejection of bus fees. But she is reconsidering because the school board is threatening to furlough teachers to save money.

"The bottom line is trying to fill in these holes so you don't lose teachers," said Forbes, mother of a second-grader and a high school freshman.

Communities in other states, including California, Texas, New Jersey, Montana, Hawaii, Kansas, North Dakota and Utah, also make parents pay for pupil transportation to and from school, with exemptions for the poor.

"It's certainly something that's become more acceptable," said Robin Leeds, a lobbyist for the National School Transportation Association, which represents private bus companies. "Rather than getting rid of transportation, they'll charge fees."

The fees are most prevalent in Massachusetts and California, said Mike Martin, executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation, an industry group. He said bus fees are not common - yet.

California districts, required to provide free transportation only to special needs students, are scrambling to raise money with the state facing a $34 billion deficit, the nation's largest.

"We've got districts reducing bus service by increasing 'walking areas,' we've got districts charging fees for the first time and districts that have been charging fees raising the fees," said Bob Austin, coordinator of California's school transportation office. "Our phones have been going crazy."

Districts in Orange County may increase bus fees - currently about $225 annually - and stop transporting students who live near schools. South of San Francisco, the Pajaro Valley school board may impose a $270 bus fee to raise $750,000 next year.

The Capistrano Unified School District has proposed eliminating busing altogether - a move Leeds, of the bus industry group, says would be "counter to safety."

"Transportation is not a mandated service. It is a local district option," Austin said. "They're making decisions to either take teachers out of the classroom or take buses off the road."

School buses are the safest form of school transportation, according to a National Research Council report last year. Buses are the way one-fourth of all students get to school but account for only 2 percent of child deaths in school-related traffic accidents.

School districts in Massachusetts can get state reimbursement of some transportation costs. But Gov. Mitt Romney has proposed eliminating the reimbursement altogether to help balance the books. He also favors the use of fees to raise money.

While unpopular, busing fees have withstood legal challenges in California, North Dakota and Massachusetts.

"The state needs to look at its own responsibility for funding public education," said Judy Wilson of Hingham. "That's what our country is supposed to do - is provide a public education without a cost to students."

this business about losing teachers is such an idle threat....

in my area anyway, people can not get teachers jobs....long lines for that.....

I would love to see a non-NEA sponsored study on how many actual teachers leave the profession ....I think it is rather small.excluding moms who want to stay home with their babies....

not only that, but here in this state, the legislature came up with this retirement scheme to allow state employees to retire....guess what....a lot of teachers ....the same teachers who supposedly have such a hard career and can't wait to leave....a lot of those took the retirement and then got themselves rehired.....

nice work if you can get it I guess....

I live in Massachusetts, which is a fairly urban environment. This busing nonsense has always irritated me. There is a school not a half mile from where I live. It's a 10-minute walk, if that. Yet the town insists on busing everybody there. When did we ever do away with walking to and from school? I would say anybody within a 3-mile radius of school is fair game for walking. I remember walking to my high school every day (my choice - I just hated riding the bus with the punk kids) about two miles each way. The walk was always a pleasure. Even in inclement weather. Especially in inclement weather, because then I had the streets all to myself. Is it a coincidence that our kids started getting chubby at about the same time we started busing them to school? I think not.

The people of Massachusetts are lucky I'm not in charge (or maybe they are unlucky that I'm not in charge). For if I had control of the school systems here, I'd eliminate busing altogether. I'd also eliminate school lunches and all those infernal vending machines that are springing up everywhere. Whatever happened to the peanut butter sandwich and apple in a brown paper bag? I say, bring back the paper bag lunch!

I'd also fire every worthless faculty member that wasn't teaching classes. That goes for school psychologists, guidance counselors and "phys ed" teachers. For crying out loud, toss the kids a ball at recess. "Gym" class is a freakin' joke and a waste of valuable school time. I'd fire the janitors too and would have the teachers rotate emptying the trash at night and dragging a broom up and down the hallways. Each teacher would be responsible for keeping their own classroom clean.

Of course, after doing all that, I'd be able to pay the teachers more money. That should help them swallow the janitorial tasks a little easier. I'd bring real textbooks into the schools as well and I'd dump all that Weekly Reader crap for some real literature like Tom Sawyer, Red Badge of Courage and Call of the Wild.

As for problem kids who can't behave in class and inhibit the learning experience for others, I'd expel them. Hey, the world needs ditchdiggers and sanitation workers too. And Burger King is always hiring.

Yeah, I'd clean this crap up in a heartbeat.

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