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We have yellow school busses here that are free for all students as far as I know. I don't know about a 1 mile limit because we live about 4 miles from the school anyway.
I do know that if you choose for your child to go to a magnet school (instead of the zoned school) that you may have to provide your own transportation unless you live close to the school. We have applied for the year-round school, and if she gets in we will have to provide transportation.
When some of you talk about public transportation, do you mean regular city buses? With non-students?
In most major cities in the North East kids in school just ride on the existing public transit system. For instance, kids in Philly are issued a SEPTA bus pass/tokens that let them ride the regular public buses to school. There are the regular yellow buses as well, so I'm not sure how they make the determination. I think elementary and special needs get bused on school buses, while high school students take SEPTA buses.
When some of you talk about public transportation, do you mean regular city buses? With non-students?
Yes. I know the Pittsburgh Public School District (for the city of Pittsburgh, not the suburbs) used public transportation for some students back in the 70s and 80s. A friend of mine who lived in the city had a bus pass issued by the city. He used it all the time to go to Pirate games and all over the place. I do know that he had to transfer downtown to get to school.
The city does own school buses too. I'm not sure about the criteria that determines which students ride school buses and which students get passes for public transportation. I think it's age based---younger students get school buses all the time, older students get school buses if there is a bus running in the area---otherwise they get a pass for transportation. Just a guess based on knowing the district wouldn't make younger children ride public transportation.
All I know is that our state law dictates that all students are provided transportation to school if the district provides transportation, regardless of what school the students attend. Since state law directs districts to provide/pay transportation to students who attend private schools, that means that districts would also be required to provide transportation to provide/pay for transportation to magnet schools within their own district.
My district is a little odd. I live in a big township land wise, but 95% of the population is centered in one major development and that is where the schools are. We bus PK-1 with the only exception being the development immediately next to the school. 2-8 all walk to school unless you live in one of the small outlying communities. All high school students are bused to the regional high school in the next town over. There is no charge for any of the bus services.
Right, well I guess that's one of those things you can afford when you pay state income tax (which we don't here.) Pros and cons of both. Some families prefer having more cash in their pocket each month to do with what they choose. I've also lived in places with state income tax where they didn't bus anyone but special ed. One particular school district didn't even own buses. It was a generally nice area where students could bike or walk and there was readily public transportation available for the ones who didn't want to. There was no support for buying a fleet of buses, hiring people to drive them, leasing a place to park them when not in use...
Actually school taxes are generated via a second property tax. Those property taxes pay the greatest portion of education expenses in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's state level funding ranks 49th out of the 50 states. That means that your state provides more state level funding for education than Pennsylvania does, regardless of how your state receives its revenue, unless you live in Alaska.
When you consider the education services Pennsylvanians receive via state law, it seems on the surface to an outsider that our state is fiscally liberal. That couldn't be farther from the case when it comes to education. The downside of Pennsylvania's funding structure being mostly based on local property tax revenue is that poorer areas have less money for education. Yet somehow this imperfect school tax structure manages to provide an education system that ranks among the best in the nation compared to most states, without directly charging students for services and supplies.
Like the OP, when I hear about people living in states where parents have to pay for extras, I empathize with families that can't afford the additional expenses, like bus transportation and books, regardless of how wonderful the education system. I do not believe that anyone should pay for education outside of taxes. Charging parents puts the burden on families with school aged children, not the entire population. All of society benefits from the educaton of our nation's children.
Anyways, I'm glad I lived in Pennsylvania while my children were school aged.
Our school districts eliminated school buses over 20 years ago due to budget cuts. Most homes are within 1-1/2 to 2 miles of their local "home district" school. There is a public bus which costs $2 during peek hours and $4 during non-peek hours.
One of the cities in our school district does not have local (nearby) high school, and students attend one of four different schools. Round trip transportation is available for those students, if they choose, at $1500/year for the 1st student, and $1420 for each additional sibling.
Edited to add - special ed students are bussed (free of charge).
Last edited by twins4lynn; 06-22-2011 at 12:05 PM..
Reason: clarification
Edited to add - special ed students are bussed (free of charge).
This seems to be a common practice (based on responses in the thread) where special ed students are bused for free even if other students are charged. I'd personally be pretty upset about that situation, if you want to charge me to bus my kid, you should charge them to bus their kid.
I guess maybe the headlong hysteria a half a century ago to consolidate school districts and marshall pupils into larger and larger schoolfactories was short-sighted. Before that, there was a school within walking distance of every urban or town-dwelling student. A few buses were maintained to collect kids from remote farm roads.
We have yellow school busses here that are free for all students as far as I know. I don't know about a 1 mile limit because we live about 4 miles from the school anyway.
I do know that if you choose for your child to go to a magnet school (instead of the zoned school) that you may have to provide your own transportation unless you live close to the school. We have applied for the year-round school, and if she gets in we will have to provide transportation.
We have lots of magnet and charter schools here, and parents all have to drive to those, no buses.
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