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Written by Lisa J. Hudson
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Thursday, 04 March 2010 10:56 |
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We’ve noticed an up-tick in legislative initiatives in the pipeline that directly impact state reimbursement for school transportation.
These are just a few we’ve tracked, but there could be many more to come:
- In Utah, HB166 proposes to increase the distance that students must live from school, from two miles to three miles, before the state will reimburse local districts for busing. On March 2, the House voted 68-3 in favor of the bill. Thousands of Utah junior high and high school students could lose school bus services, according to a report in today’s Salt Lake Tribune. The bill's fiscal note states the busing measure could save $4.3 million in 2010-11. The bill allows districts to choose to continue to bus students who live closer than three miles, but those districts will not receive any state funding to do so. The bill now moves to the Senate.
- While not brand new, Washington is coming closer to implementing a new school transportation funding formula. HB 2041 (and its companion in the state senate, SB 5914), was part of the 2009 regular session and was reintroduced and retained in January for the 2010 session. The bill declares the current funding formula outdated and details a new distribution formula for allocating state funds to districts for school transportation beginning with the 2011-12 school year. It is said to change the current formula used to calculate how much the state provides districts for transportation to better reflect the actual costs of bussing students to school.
- In Minnesota, school districts are required by the state to transport non-public and charter school students but then the state only reimburses district in part for the costs incurred. A new legislative proposal, HF2910 (and its companion in the state senate, SF2770) would allow school districts providing pupil transportation services to bill charter or non-public schools for the difference. Additionally, a recent version of the proposed law stated that a school district is not required to provide pupil transportation services to a charter or non-public school student whose bill is unpaid. While public school districts strongly support the measure, private and charter schools and the organizations that back them strongly oppose the bill and are urging families who attend these schools to contact their legislators and ask them to vote no.
Has there been talk in your state of doing the same? Let us know below. |
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