Posted on 11/26/2013 5:19:01 PM PST by riskybiz
Salisbury transports 1,429 students to its own four buildings using 20 vehicles, according to the district. It can use those vehicles for runs to more than one school because of staggered start times and half-day kindergarten.
It transports 203 private school students using 19 bus runs and 39 charter school students with six bus runs. It costs Salisbury an average of $2,514 per private and charter school student to transport them, according to Bruchak.
For this school year, Salisbury budgeted $2.27 million for transportation. Its state reimbursement for transportation last year was $415,021.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
neighborhood schools served a purpose. go back..it was a good system
Compulsory education meets compulsory taxation.
Are you claiming the charter and private school kids have no “right” to the exact same government provided transportation systems the public school kids enjoy?
Can the parents of any of the kids get a tax deduction if they do not utilize the school bus system of transportation? The parents of those who do, do not pay extra for the transportation service, do they?
Well, I’m not sure there is an upsetting issue either.
I don’t dispute at all the right to be transported to private or charter schools.
My intention in posting was to highlight the amount of money that goes to transportation rather than education.
My school bus driving neighbor takes one student to and from an out of the district school using a school bus that could easily seat a small band or football team.
It just seems overly disproportionate.
It does seem very wastefull to run a standard size school bus for a demonstrably low number of scheduled school bus riders.
It's not the same as any city “public transportation system”, who can at least try to justify their innefienciecs by truthfully claiming they can not accurately predict total potential ridership numbers per route, on any given day.
OTOH, from a fleet maintenance level, it may actually save taxpayer money for the “big bus” to take a single child from point A-B and back, than to have the district buy a new small bus, or pay for the taxi ride.
I suspect we’re pretty much on the same page on this.
Unfortunately, this horse has likely left the barn.
The busing was probably no big deal when there were a few students and out-of-district schools.
My frustration (am I a libertarian?) comes from the failure of elected officials to foresee and/or care about unintended consequences. After all, it’s always other peoples money, and all too often there’s a relative or political crony making money on such activity.
I guess if this were our biggest problem, we’d say that would be a good thing.
Hang in there.
“The parents of those who do, do not pay extra for the transportation service, do they?”
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They do in my town in MA. $300.00 per year.
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As a parent (doesn't matter that I was the much derided single parent, but just saying) it was critically important to work out exactly how I was to comply with compulsory government education schedules, my work hours, and available transportation.
In no situation did I ever find it in my family's best interest to rely on public/government controlled transport.
Cost me a lot of money, but it was worth it, to make my own arrangements for transportation.
I never got a tax deduction or credit for doing that.
Why would your town charge you extra for what you have already paid for?
It doesn't matter much if you rent property or own it, taxes are paid on it.
Landlords are not required to itemize expenses and taxes to tenants.
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