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The city buses here are free for college students (since it is part of their tuition), city employees, and seniors, but everyone else has to pay to ride them, including the public school students. An annual pass is $180. I see tons of high school students on the buses.
We live two blocks from the school and they still provide the option to ride the bus. In the district we lived in before, if you lived closer than a mile from the school, bus service wasn't provided.
I have a personal rule of not going anywhere in a vehicle if it's close enough to walk, so we either walk or bike to school.
It is common in some areas that students who live close to the school are not provided bus service because they are expected to walk or bike to school. Some districts set that limit at 1 mile (as in they will provide bus service for anyone who lives more than a mile from their assigned school) and others set it at 1.5 miles. Sometimes exceptions are made if students in a particular neighborhood would have to walk a dangerous route to get to school like walk along a busy street that doesn't have sidewalks.
Yeah, that's what I meant by it being foreign to me. In my region, kids get rides to school regardless of how close or far they live. If they live right next door, they can ride. Of course, that would be crazy but just an example of how there aren't distance restrictions here.
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Originally Posted by h886
If you choose to go to private school or choose to ask for a transfer to a public school other than your home school, you are generally responsible for figuring out your own transportation.
That's what I like about Pennsylvania state law, all students get free transportation because all parents are taxpayers too. Another state law I like is that students who attend private schools are allowed to participate in sports and activities at the public schools.
The city buses here are free for college students (since it is part of their tuition), city employees, and seniors, but everyone else has to pay to ride them, including the public school students.
That doesn't make sense to me. My city does the same. Why provide free bus service to college students not high school students? Maybe the free bus service is an attraction when students pick colleges. Like a bonus to lure them to the city. Maybe it's because high school students are provided transportation. But I think some city school district students, who attend magnet schools on the other side of the city, have to take the public transportation. I think they get a free bus pass since the district does provide transportation for other students.
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Originally Posted by passwithoutatrace
An annual pass is $180.
Wow! That's cheap! An annual pass here is $1,430.00!
Back in California, a bus pass was $400, but I can't remember if that was for a semester or the whole year. Here, our oldest takes the bus to high school for free (all students living at least a certain distance--I think it's a mile--can ride). Our middle child has always received busing as part of special ed. Our youngest just started school but we live close so we walk or drive. It will be the same when he is in middle school, because it's even closer than the elementary school.
$1,430 is what a public transportation bus pass costs everyone in Zone 2, which is most suburbs. Zone 1 pass is $990. There's no discount for students. College students get free passes. I believe that public school students might get free passes too---basing my assumption on our state laws and what I recall hearing in the past. Of course, they would only get a free pass issued to them from the district if they need to take the bus to a magnet school that's farther away. Students don't get free public transit passes if they are provided school bus transportation.
Yeah, at $130/month, it's hardly much cheaper to take a bus than drive into town for work. Sure, there's a savings, but the savings doesn't outweigh the hassle of taking the bus. I took the bus when I was the only one in the family going downtown, but when my son started attending school downtown, we commuted in together because it's definitely cheaper to drive than pay $260/month for the bus.
(That $130/month is $1,560/year. For two people it's $3,120/year! Those are based on monthy passes. Let's face it, who has $1,430 to pay outright for the annual pass!)
In my region, kids get rides to school regardless of how close or far they live. If they live right next door, they can ride. Of course, that would be crazy but just an example of how there aren't distance restrictions here.
That's what I like about Pennsylvania state law, all students get free transportation because all parents are taxpayers too. Another state law I like is that students who attend private schools are allowed to participate in sports and activities at the public schools.
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...
One of our townships did not get their increase in budget/bond issue passed. One of the things they discontinued was bus transportation. Instead they contracted with a nonprofit to arrange any transportation. It is $55 a month per child. The s**t has hit the fan.
Lets see what happens between now and school start. The school could not charge for transportation so this is a way around it they are trying.
Our school just went from 6 blocks or farther for elementary and 1 mile and farther for middle/high schools to 1 mile for elementary 1.5 for middle/high schools. There are exceptions for having to cross dangerous intersections/roads though. You can apply to have busing, and pay for it, if you are not within the free service area.
It pains me to see buses at the high school transporting one or two kids because so many of the kids drive or get rides from friends, our kids included. I wish the system was set up for an opt out if your kids are not riding the bus to save the district money.
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