School Bus Fare - Fair?

[chanel]

PARKER — Parents in Colorado's third-largest school district are being asked to pay if their kids want to ride the bus to school.

The Douglas County school board voted 5-0 Tuesday night to approve a 50-cent-per-ride transportation fee starting next school year. The decision will affect about 17,000 students who ride the bus this year. The district hopes to raise $2 million with the program.

Douglas County Schools is facing $31 million in reductions for the 2010-11 school year. At nearly $16 million, the district says transportation costs make up a large portion of the budget.

Douglas County votes to charge fees for school-bus rides - The Denver Post

 

[Granny]

Is it cheaper to fork over the 50 cents, be hit with more taxes, or have even more cut from the education budget?

 

[Coyote]

It seems to me that if a government mandates a child must go to school, then they are responsible for providing the child the means to go to school - not charging them for it.

 

[Dr Gregg]

This state sucks as far as finances are concernec. Taxes are really so low, and like usual, people want their cake and eat it too. Bitch and complain about lack of this or that, the bad roads, bad schools, but then any slight increase in any taxes, they go nuts. They do anything they can to fuck their people by insane enforcement and parking rules to get any amount of money they can from the people, which only screws the poor people.

Also, the colorado universities rank near the bottom of state funding of higher education, which is a damn shame.

OK, to actually address the thread, no, I don't think its fair.

 

[boedicca]

Nonsense. Parents are responsible for getting their children to the school room in proper condition to learn. This includes clothing, nutrition, and transportation. A $.50 fee for the convenience of bus service is perfectly reasonable.

That said, I'd also want to see the school budget to see how much waste is being protected by implementing this fee. There is a growing trend these days for local governments to threaten residents with cuts in police, fire fighters, libraries, and school teachers in order to blackmail them into tax and fee increases. The services residents actually values are being used as body shields to protect the waste and fraud.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

PARKER — Parents in Colorado's third-largest school district are being asked to pay if their kids want to ride the bus to school.

The Douglas County school board voted 5-0 Tuesday night to approve a 50-cent-per-ride transportation fee starting next school year. The decision will affect about 17,000 students who ride the bus this year. The district hopes to raise $2 million with the program.

Douglas County Schools is facing $31 million in reductions for the 2010-11 school year. At nearly $16 million, the district says transportation costs make up a large portion of the budget.

Douglas County votes to charge fees for school-bus rides - The Denver Post

In my state ALL children get a fare free bus ride to school - public school and private school children.

 

[Coyote]

Nonsense. Parents are responsible for getting their children to the school room in proper condition to learn. This includes clothing, nutrition, and transportation. A $.50 fee for the convenience of bus service is perfectly reasonable.

If we trended back to neighborhood schools, I'd agree but there are some districts in my state where there is one highschool for the entire county which means pretty long transports. If the school system is going to run itself that way, then it can take on the transportation costs.

That said, I'd also want to see the school budget to see how much waste is being protected by implementing this fee. There is a growing trend these days for local governments to threaten residents with cuts in police, fire fighters, libraries, and school teachers in order to blackmail them into tax and fee increases. The services residents actually values are being used as body shields to protect the waste and fraud.

Interesting question.

 

[jillian]

It seems to me that if a government mandates a child must go to school, then they are responsible for providing the child the means to go to school - not charging them for it.

in an ideal world that would be true. but given the economic problems facing so many municipalities right now, it seems that cuts have to be somewhere. so the question then becomes .... where should one cut?

if there need to be cuts in education, obviously, waste should be addressed first. once that is done, then perhaps cuts need to be in amenities like transportation to school as opposed to cutting teachers, programs, lunches, etc.

priorities have to be set at some point, just like with any budget.

 

[Anguille]

I don't know if this policy is right or wrong but I wish more kids walked or rode bikes to school. School bussess are noisy and they pollute. In my ideal world kids would also all have laptops and all their textbooks would be online so they didn't have to lug heavy equipment around all day.

 

[Middleman]

When I was a kid our school district did not provide buses. This was the Los Angeles Unified School District. Either you walked to school, your parents drove you, or you paid a monthly fee to the school bus company. We lived up on a hill so my Mom carpooled with the other moms, and after the divorce she paid the bus company.

 

[Dr Gregg]

And Colorado has a huge source of revenue coming in from medical marijuana. They have $5 million in uncashed checks for licenses

And what do they do? Pass restrictive regulations that will likely decrease their source of revenue,. new licensing, and money coming into these places. In a bad economic time, its a job creator and a source of revenue. Seems win-win to me, instead of rewarding anti-marijuana ignorance and hysteria

It just needs to be legalized, and then look how much money they can get. One big reason, other than the rise of the black market crime, for prohibition ending, was the need for revenue. Alcohol was a huge revenue producer. Do that for marijuana, you won't have to raise taxes