School Bus Cost Containment
"Perspective"05/09/2008
Citizens Have Good Ideas too -- don't leave innovation just to Legislators
Paul Munnis
The cost of educational transportation is soaring to ever higher levels and they are being driven by rising fuel prices.
It is time for a revisit and for a public discussion of how we bus and pay for students to attend their classes.
For example:
What if we required parents to bring their kids to and from classes? The downside is working parents who need to be elsewhere during school hours and some lacking reliable transportation.
What if we allowed students to just use public transportation? More buses would be needed, not all locations are covered by a city bus, and not enough buses service the needed routes at the required times. The same can be said for light rail use in the Twin Cities.
What if we went over to a mix of city buses and parental pick-up and delivery of kids, and leased a few buses for the more remote locations that are off the bus line routes? That might work if the cost of transportation were left to the parents and if low income kids could apply for a subsidized bus pass. Maybe neighborhood motor pools could form and apply for a transportation gas reimbursement fee. Perhaps that could be given as a local tax credit. Also, the city bus people would need to augment bus routes and times.
What if we used city buses and subsidized passes for Jr. High and High School students who are not disadvantaged and who are on bus routes? That is getting closer to the possible.
The notion of increased home schooling and Internet schooling seems to not apply in this discussion but maybe people have ideas about how to integrate them.
This idea of making school transportation a parental responsibility instead of a school responsibility is interesting but it raises the question about what to do about pre-school, kindergarten and those elementary school children below grade 5. They are pretty young to be responsible for their own transportation management. There are also some unexpressed concerns about pedophiles on public busses. Also there are disadvantaged students needing transportation solutions.
What options are open to rural schools? Their students are dispersed widely over the local geography and activity buses also place a cost burden to be analyzed.
Maybe school crossing guards could become bus shepherds and ride the busses thus watching out for the safety interests of young people.
We have been asking the State to leverage and gain advantage from the State centralization of our school system. We have encouraged them to seek economy-of-scale in purchasing and contracting for school services. So far the idea has been rejected and the legislature has chosen not to do that and to leave nearly everything about schools in the hands of locals with the exception of State funding for a portion of the costs of the construction, maintenance, and operation of the schools.
However I do not see why the State of Minnesota could not contract for bus fuel using a wholesale fixed price contract and have it delivered to the communities for storage, and dispensing. Those communities seeking to participate could put in an order for State wholesale price contracting of (X) number of gallons annually. That would at least shave much of the gas price increases and help with the cost of local school taxes rising to cover bus transportation costs. In a similar fashion maybe the State could obtain wholesale prices for the heating of school buildings. Failing the State solution amybe the local school boards could do this.
I encourage people to start discussing this over coffee with their neighbors. Sooner or later some good ideas will surface that will transform the costs of school transportation in Minnesota. They could come right from your own discussion group. If so, there are going to be a lot of grateful taxpayers thanking you for the solutions.