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news
Top Member
Canada
2951 Posts |
 Posted - 12/04/2006 : 09:01:11 AM
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December 3, 2006 - (subscription) Chicago Tribune, IL - Glencoe parents are paying as much as $650 per student this year for their children to ride the public school bus, a figure unheard of elsewhere in the nation, school transportation experts say.
Families in Cook's Northfield High School District 225 pay even more: $675 per student.
With school budgets continuing to rise while residents reject tax increases, districts are making up the difference with fees for everything from textbooks to technology.
In most states, and in most districts in Illinois, there is no surcharge for the yellow bus fleets that symbolize America's public school system.
But some local districts have embraced user fees with gusto, and their bus fees are among the heftiest in the nation.
Illinois has an unusually disjointed school bus fee system, the product of quirks in state law, varying local policies and minimal state oversight.
full story |
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2006 : 10:03:24 AM
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$675.00 per student? I'm surprised the state PTS fails to see what is happening here. Where parents can afford that high a rate then where is the need for the state to reimburse the district for providing the bus service? This is a local tax on parents and ought to be stopped or at least the state subtracting the fees from their reimbursements.(jk)
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bosslady
Advanced Member
USA
336 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2006 : 1:17:32 PM
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Here in the state of Kansas, if a student is on reduced or free lunches, the district can not charge them a fee for riding a bus.
Our district ran an in-town bus for children. It really was a nice convenience for students who's parents worked and didn't have a way to get their kids to school. Several years ago when the budget got tight that was one of the first things to go as we don't get reimbursed for students closer than 2 1/2 miles. We still pick those up who live outside the city limits but not inside. Of course, the parents were very unhappy when the route was cut. The school board considered continuing the route and having the parents pay a fee. I thought at first that would be a little unfair as only the students whose parents could afford the fee could ride but in checking into it I found that if the student is on free or reduced lunches they could not be charged a fee.
The board decided to scrap it all together. It would mean the kids from low income families could ride,(we couldn't charge them) and the kids from the more well-to-do families could ride,(their parents could afford it) but as usual the kids from the lower middle class probably wouldn't have the money. |
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IL - Hefty fees jolt families
