Franklin High School students in Seattle take a transit bus by King County Metro Transit, which has been transporting area students for about 15 years.
half of the district’s 26,000 students use the city’s buses and light rail system. Meanwhile, Milwaukee Public Schools
spokesman Mike Turza said the district has been using public transit since the late 1970s. Until about three years ago, 14,000 students used public transit to get to school. “Now only about 3,500 to 4,000 stu-
dents are riding county transit,” he said. “We were trying to get a break in price, and we were unsuccessful. So now we use 12 (school bus) contractors. Te dis- trict does not own any buses. We do the scheduling and manage the contractors.” Te cost, Turza added, is a wash. Te
county charged the district $575 a year per student and the district’s cost for the yel- low bus is about $580 a year per student. Meanwhile, Phoenix officials said a con-
tracted route costs the district about $5.20 per student per day, whereas public transit costs the district $1.75. Te district’s cur- rent transportation budget is $13 million. Without public
transportation, officials
estimate it would skyrocket to $22 million. “If we transported in-house, we would
have to have additional buses, drivers and aides, not to mention the maintenance of the vehicles and gas,” district spokesman Craig Pletenik said. “Tere are lots of costs we don’t have currently because we use city transportation.” King County Metro Transit, serving
the Seattle area, has been transporting students in Seattle and nearby Bellevue, Wash., for about 15 years. “Te school districts were looking to supplement their yellow bus needs with
A public transit bus drops off students in front of Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis. The district began the practice after a successful three-year pilot program.
an emphasis on their high school stu- dents,” said Mike Beck, the agency’s school program project manager. “Our focus has really been on the high schools. In Seattle, we transport a small percentage of middle and junior high students.” As the use of public transit grows, stu-
dent safety concerns have resurfaced. “I don’t know how any person who
cares for school children can allow them on a transit bus,” said John Benish Jr., chief operating officer for Cook-Illinois Corp., a private contractor in Chicago. “Tat student could be riding next to a total stranger. Tere could be 20 other people on that same bus with no background checks and no identification. It’s like open- ing the school bus and allowing anyone to ride, which is against the law.” Benish said many older students opt to
drive to school or ride city buses because it is the adult thing to do. “(Riding the school bus) is not a cool,
fun way to go to and from school,” he said. “Even with all the regulations, we have to make it a more accepted way to travel to and from school.”
UNFAIR COMPETITION? Public transit departments also re-
ceive some form of federal and local funding unavailable to private school bus companies. Therefore, the Federal Transit Administration prohibits tran- sit agencies from installing routes to specifically serve students. The federal rule aims to prevent unfair competition. Public transit can, however, treat re- quests from school districts the same as
any other, as long as those same buses remain available to the general public. Te issue was thrust back into the spot-
light at the beginning of the current school year, when Minneapolis Public Schools opted to use public transit to transport students to five of its high schools after a successful three-year pilot program. Dur- ing that first day, school officials, transit employees, volunteers, law enforcement and even the state’s commissioner of edu- cation supervised the student riders. “From all our reports, everything went
great,” said spokeswoman Latisha Gray. “We had about 40 or 50 of our staff riding buses on different routes. Student safety and academic achievement are our top priorities. We do not take that lightly.” In September, school officials in Mary-
land’s Frederick County School District were asked by County Commissioner Bill Shreve to take a look at using public transit for a more efficient use of the county’s resources. “We have duplication of routes and
we have the capacity on transit bus- es,” said Shreve. “Transit is financed by county state and federal government. Why not use transit buses? They use city buses in Baltimore.” Using public funding to compete with
private bus companies is the tightrope public transit is walking, student trans- porters said, and they are crying foul. “It affects everybody, not just contrac-
tors,” Benish said. “Technically, it is not more cost effective because we are paying for it with our taxes. Te government is paying for that bus. Tey are subsidized by the government.” ■
www.stnonline.com 25
King County Metro Transit
Minneapolis Public Schools
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50