Rising fuel costs for buses pinch school districts

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9042729/

The wheels on the bus aren’t the only things going round and round.

The dials on the fuel pump are spinning, too, for school districts that face soaring costs just as 25 million children get back on the bus for a new school year.

Most buses use diesel fuel, which has jumped about a dollar a gallon since last year. School districts now pay an average of $2.25 to $2.40 a gallon, a figure that keeps climbing because of summertime demand for fuel and the escalating price of crude oil.

To offset the costs, districts are stripping money from classrooms, trimming bus routes, cutting field trips and raiding cash reserves. Some are considering charging fees for bus service or asking kids to walk longer distances to school.

Hey, everybody should cyberschool like Santorum's kids.

[dsc]

1. This is a serious problem for many districts

My school has virtually no one who walks to it. It costs a mint to bus everyone to and from, not to mention the various activity busses. Even the end of last year was getting bad.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Transportation and salaries

are the two largest expenses for most school districts, aren't they?

[dsc]

5. yep and of course there is heat and air which also went up

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. This is really a huge problem

School districts run on very tight budgets. This could bankrupt many of them.

[skids]

4. Not to mention...

...heating and AC costs. Lots of schools these days are still so run down that they have old HVAC systems that are poorly maintained and not only waste energy but are a hazard to the kids and employees in the building, due to buildup of toxic mold.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Air Conditioning?????

:rofl:

I would donate a body part if they air conditioned my building.

[Divernan]

6. Mega schools replaced small neighborhood schools-

Economies of scale? Not any more.
In the flat Midwestern small town where I grew up, all the town kids walked or rode their bikes to school. The only kids who rode the bus were from farms in the country. Remember how Ralphie got bundled up by his Mom for his walk to school in "A Christmas Story"?

Now I live where there are steep hills and no sidewalks. It would be extremely dangerous for kids to walk to school - and manytimes the school is three or more miles away. The schools will have to keep bussing all their students. There will be very bitter fights about the school district's portion of property taxes - especially in areas where increases have to approved by referendum, or where even though it's up to the district to set its millage, a high percentage of retired people on fixed incomes will be in dire straits if their taxes increase significantly.

[Rex]

8. Whatever it takes to keep the poor poor.

Repukes think public schooling is for Dems and will do what it takes to keep us down.

[YellerdawgFlorida]

9. In this place,

They need to curtail the bus routes.
This is a big county, and in 1972 bussing was definitely the only way to integrate the schools. When we first integrated, in 1971, there was definitely a divide. I grew up in a neighborhood with no blacks, no latino families. They shuffled us together like two mis-matched decks of cards, and the results were not pretty. But we got through it. I think we grew from it.
Now, however, there are families of every persuasion and color living in my neighborhood. And we have children riding busses for hours a day to get back and forth to school. This is just silly. If integration and diversity can be acheived without children having to spend long hours on gas-sucking busses, I am for it!
To me it is not so much about the cost....it is just stupid!

[Robeson]

10. Just another example of how Bush's oil buddies are sucking our tax...

...dollars right out. School districts - funded by us, the people - have to pay for school expenses. Those districts have to re-budget and fund more for transportation costs. Those costs are increased due to increased gas prices. Oil companies collect profit from increased gas prices.

These guys are pros at raping the public treasury.

[DS1]

11. Those school buses are unsafe pieces of shit

and are kept that way by the bus manufacturer to keep costs down.

It's time for a new generation.

[boredofeducation]

13. Do you know where most southern states get there school buses?

Do you know where most southern states get there school buses?

They buy the used ones from the northern states, because some states have strict rules of how long a bus can be on the road.

[newswolf56]

12. Another dire wound inflicted on us by the DemoPublican politicians...

who betrayed us to Big Oil and Big Automotive: with adequate public transport, all urban public-school bus operations and something like probably half the rural public-school bus operations could be abolished completely.

Again, there is NO EXCUSE: the present-day crisis -- which will merely worsen until the U.S. economy collapses completely -- was foreseen at least 35 years ago, even before the 1973 oil crisis. Our traitorous, treacherous politicians literally sold us out for the obscene bribes paid them by Big Oil and Big Automotive.