Oklahoma’s editorial writers expressed their opinions on a variety of topics last week including school buses:
May 14
The Oklahoman on school buses:
With diesel fuel costing more than $4 per gallon and sure to go higher, public school administrators are fretting about the dent that fuel costs are making in their budgets. What we wonder is, why are public schools in the bus business in the first place?
The Oklahoma Constitution requires the state to provide children an education. It says nothing about providing them transportation to and from those places of education, yet public schools have done so for generations.
The superintendent of the Choctaw-Nicoma Park school district told The Associated Press that he would like to hire additional teachers, but can’t. “We have to cut programs just to buy gas,” he said. “That’s where it gets very frustrating.”
What should be frustrating to taxpayers is that so much money is being spent in this area. The AP reported that transportation costs totaled almost $175 million during the 2006-07 school year. How nice would it be to see that money funneled to classrooms, especially when budgets are tight?
School districts, of course, need buses to transport children on field trips and to athletic competitions. But as districts face mounting energy costs, they need to consider whether spending millions on transportation really makes sense. And while they’re looking for ways to save, they might want to give some thought to starting school at a time other than the middle of August.
This being public education, though, it’s a good bet most administrators would rather just ask for more money and ask taxpayers to go to the back of the bus.
