HEADLINES
State Legislative Session Goes By with Little Fanfare
By Stephane Babcock Te legislative season has ended for most states, with some not
meeting this year at all. Te main focus of the industry’s atten- tion has been the economy and how it will affect state budgets and, because of the trickle-down effect, school district budgets. According to “Te Fiscal Survey of the States,” a report by the
National Association of State Budget Officers, there was a 3.4 percent decline in general fund spending for fiscal year 2009 and a 5.4 percent decline in fiscal 2010 based on enacted budgets. And although K-12 education was most often listed as a program exempted from budget cuts, there are a number of states that are still making cuts to their public education budgets.
PASSING THE BUDGET WITHOUT PASSING THE BUCK Te battle to approve budgets has been anything but smooth
sailing in most states. In Washington State, Director of Student Transportation Allan Jones was happy to report that his state’s budget had passed, which also included funding for an IT in- frastructure that will benefit the school buses in the state. Te system will take information from school districts on the number of basic students, number of special needs students, average dis- tance from bus stops to final destination, as well as the number of destinations served and the age population of the riders. “Te system will also be used for a reporting portal for
verification of school bus drivers (annual status review), annual mileage report, annual fuel report, and an an- nual report on the number of homeless kids transported, the number of miles and the cost,”
the data input and the money output,
said Jones. the
system will need to provide a Web site where districts will be able to review their school bus stop locations for accuracy of location and realism of the route used by the system to calculate the distance to the school from each stop.”
SEAT BELTS TAKES CENTER STAGE, AGAIN It only takes one bill, and soon others will follow. Tis
22 School Transportation News Magazine June 2010 “Besides
year, as many in the past, saw the introduction of a good hand- ful of bills proposing the inclusion of lap/shoulder seat belts on school buses. Connecticut’s attempt became the most noteworthy, as it followed the death of a 16-year-old student during a weekend activity bus trip. Although the bill made it out of committee for the first time in two decades, like so many before it, the costs involved have halted any further ac- tion. At this writing, the bill was reworked to require a study of seat belts on school buses and was stalled in the appropria- tions committee. But, a way to compensate for the increased costs to school
districts could be solved by a separate bill that was, at this writing, sitting on Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s desk await- ing her signature. The bill would give schools a rebate of 50 percent off the state sales if they purchased school buses with seat belts. Seat belt funding was the focal point of a Missouri piece of leg-
islation that would impose a $15 surcharge for each motor vehicle moving violation that would be deposited into the newly cre- ated School Bus Safety Assistance Fund. Tis would help school districts equip new school buses with lap/shoulder belts. Te Department of Elementary and Secondary Education was to de- cide how the funds are to be allocated with more money given to school districts with lower quotients when dividing the district’s assessed valuation by the weighted daily attendance of the most recent school year. It also called for new buses purchased or buses manufactured after Jan. 1, 2011 to be equipped with the safety restraints. First priority would have been given to elementary school buses, but since the bill has no hearing scheduled and is not on the calendar, it’s likely to go the way of the dodo during this legislative session. Indiana may not have introduced its own version of a seat belt bill, but legislators kept the issue on their re- spective radars by introducing a bill that would give civil and criminal liability protection to school corpo- rations that voluntarily install lap/shoulder belts, even if a student isn’t wearing the restraint, ac- cording to State Director Pete Baxter. Te bill was referred to committee in January and had not moved since.
AND THE WINNER IS... Tis year, the state that wins for the most school bus-related bills goes to the aforementioned Missouri with 11 introduced bills. Georgia came in a close second with 10 bills dealing with some aspect of the yellow
bus. Te issues ranged from fuel tax exemption to the creation of a school bus safety task force, but, in the end, all are either stuck in committee or have already been cut from further discussion. ■
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