Schools made right move on buses

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July 27, 2012

Schools made right move on buses

The Daily Citizen The Dalton Daily Citizen Fri Jul 27, 2012, 08:51 AM EDT

The Whitfield County Board of Education made the right call recently when it decided to cut 11 bus routes starting with the next school year.

The move will save the system $350,000. That’s a very small sliver of the system’s projected $92 million budget. But in difficult economic times, and with the school board looking at a 5-mill increase in its property tax, school officials need to be making every cut they can.

School officials say that all students who have received bus service will still be able to get it. In practice, the change means the school system will combine some elementary, middle and high school students on buses. Many school systems don’t segregate students on buses by grade level, and there’s little reason to think that combining students of different ages on buses will create problems, so long as officials are vigilant.

Georgia, like many other states, does not require schools to provide bus service. And school systems across the country have been cutting bus service to balance strained budgets during the past four years. In fact, Dalton Public Schools cut bus service to students living within a certain distance of their school a couple of years ago.

Schools should encourage students who are old enough to drive to carpool to school. And parents and schools should encourage middle school and high school students who live within a few miles of their school to walk or bicycle.

Many don’t like change, but with the right attitude this change could pay off, and not just financially.

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Schools made right move on buses

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