What Happened?
The school district in Hoover, Alabama, has opted out of eliminating school bus services to local families but is considering implementing transportation fees for users to support the system financially. The Alabama Department of Education is leaving it in the hands of city officials whether or not families should be charged to pay for local school bus services amid tight budget cuts.
The Goal
In Alabama, city schools are not required to provide transportation services to students, unlike county districts. Many families are concerned adding the transportation fees will place lower income districts at a disadvantage. However, school districts are struggling to maintain transportation fees due to budget cuts, and see the transportation fees as the only way to keep the services running.
Faced with having to find extra money in household budgets, many families are encouraging the school districts to make cuts elsewhere in the budget to ensure transportation services remain available at no cost to students. School districts are still working on how much the transportation fee would be to each family based on bids from private providers.
Currently, the State of Alabama pays around 75 percent of school district transportation costs. This leaves about $2.5 million in annual expenses left for individual school districts to cover to keep the buses rolling. County school districts must find a way to keep transportation services in the budget, while city schools have the freedom to assess its bus needs and possibly place the remaining costs on families.
New York City Bus Dilemma
While the Alabama school districts are struggling to support school bus services with internal budgets, thousands of students in New York City may be without transportation options due to bus company filing for bankruptcy. Scrambling to find a solution before the end of winter break, the New York Department of Education is searching for a replacement to the Atlantic bus company that brought more than 40,000 students to and from school during the week.
The Atlantic bus company covered 1,500 routes citywide and around 20 percent of the city’s services. The city is working with other bus companies to take over these routes and find a permanent solution moving forward. If a bus company replacement is not found in time for the start of classes in January, the city will provide special MetroCards for students and parents through sixth grade. Families with special needs students will likely have to arrange for special transportation services and will be reimbursed for their troubles.
Outsource As A Solution
Illinois’ Dakota School District is also finding it difficult to keep its contract with the current school bus provider. Searching for new sources of budget cuts, the school district is considering outsourcing its school bus transportation services to the Freeport School District. Freeport will supply the buses and drivers while drivers from the Dakota School District will be hired by Freeport and run their same routes.
Bussing In New Ideas
Gov1 has followed advancements in bus transportation such as wireless charging stations or propane vehicles.