Data and Info on School Busing
Update: a link to a Soup for Teachers Facebook page with a school-specific petition (you take their wording and put in your specifics so Super/Board know what will happen at YOUR school).
end of update
With all this discussion, I thought I'd throw up a few pieces of information.
Fun Facts
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
This article from the Florida state legislature on busing has a map showing that 13 states allow district to charge parents for transportation.
This Washington legislature Citizens Guide to School Funding also talks about busing, see page 10.
OSPI and K-12 transportation
Pay to Ride article from Public School Review.
end of update
With all this discussion, I thought I'd throw up a few pieces of information.
Fun Facts
- In 2004-2005, the most recent year for which statistics are complied, 55.3% of the over 45M children enrolled in public K-12 schools were bused to school at public expense.
- The United States spends $17.5 billion per year on school bus transportation at an average cost of $692 per student transported.1
- The percentage of children bused has been declining steadily since the mid-1980s, when slightly more than 60% of children were bused. At that time, the average expenditure per student transported was under $300.2
- In FY2009, approximately $180 million in federal Safe Routes to School funding will be made available to each state’s Department of Transportation to help school districts make it safer for children to walk and bicycle to school.
This article from the Florida state legislature on busing has a map showing that 13 states allow district to charge parents for transportation.
This Washington legislature Citizens Guide to School Funding also talks about busing, see page 10.
OSPI and K-12 transportation
Pay to Ride article from Public School Review.
Sarah
Wiley, another concerned taxpayer, chose to point the finger at state
legislators, rather than the school board. At the same meeting, she
asked lawmakers, “I want to know how you expect us to do more with less
when you all voted against schools? You voted for charters and vouchers that took money away from us.”
Comments
If we can't afford reasonable start times and bussing, then maybe it's time to look at eliminating or cutting back on general ed bussing. Crossing guards at dangerous intersections have to be cheaper than busses and drivers. The city could help out with traffic lights, police patrols, bike lanes and sidewalks.
By reasonable start time, I mean that all schools start at 9:00.
Infrastructure / bureaucracy cost.
People running the transportation department need there raises.
Taking away out of neighborhood busing was a huge blow to equitable access in my opinion.
The amount save was a pittance, less than a million the first year, I believe. All so someone downtown could say they 'streamlined' the system, and buck for a raise.
Sorry to beat a...
Dead Horse
Ballard mom
WA code on riding school bus
-sleeper
The only one to respond was Sue Peters.
She was also the only one to ask questions at the subsequent board meeting.
The best question was about losing matching funds from the state if we cut busing?
The flunkey could not explain the state's criteria for transport reimbursement.
He just said the state was encouraging reduced transport costs and left it at that.
This vote did not encourage community, it diminished it.
Dead Horse