INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS: BRIEFS
REPORT PROPOSES NEW SCHOOL BUS FORMULA OPTIONS IN CALIFORNIA
in funding for home-to-school transportation, said Kenneth Kapphahn, the LAO fiscal and policy analyst who wrote the report. The legislature requested the report after finding reform was needed in the current $491-million transportation program under the state’s new Local Control Funding Formula. He added that a new option would “help the Legislature further its goal of build- ing a school funding system that is simple, transparent and rational.” Currently, all school districts receive the same annual amount of transportation funding they received in 2012-2013, which is actually based on transportation fund- ing they received in the 1980s. “We have indicated this is a very irrational and outdated approach, and suggest
T
the Legislature get started on an alternative this year,” Kapphahn told STN. The three options are: • Phase out funding for the current program during the next several years and allow school districts to decide how much to spend on busing from money received under the Local Control Funding Formula.
• Create a threshold for reimbursement and pay most of the costs above that level, easing the burden of districts facing disproportionate busing expenses.
• Create a new formula that would reimburse all districts for a portion of their transportation costs.
he nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office proposed three options on Feb. 25 to make the school busing funding formula more equitable and rational than the edu-
cation funding system that took effect in California last July. To adopt any of the report’s three options would be a “notable improvement,”
IC BUS DEALER MIDWEST TRANSIT EXPANDS SERVICE TERRITORY
Midwest Transit Equipment com- pleted an acquisition of Allied Bus Sales from FirstGroup America on Feb. 27, expanding its bus sales, service and parts business to include all of Missouri and Kansas. Te company described the deal as the purchase of "certain assets." Midwest Transit, an IC Bus dealer, takes over Allied Bus' core operations based in Nixa, Mo. IC Bus responded by naming Midwest Transit its authorized dealer in the area. Midwest Transit continues to service IC Buses throughout Illinois, Indiana and parts of Michigan with the goal of expanding further.
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www.ewss.org | 10939B Reed Hartman Hwy. • Cincinnati, OH 45242 30 School Transportation News April 2014
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