WyBlog

Waste on Wheels isn't the half of it

Wednesday's Star Ledger printed a lead editorial that I actually agree with. The editorial, entitled Waste on Wheels is a reaction to a situation where the North Hunterdon-Voorhees school district is forced by state law to spend $49,500 per year to bus a student to the Morris County Vo-Tech school in Denville. This vo-tech school offers a specialized performing arts program that is not available in Hunterdon County and state law mandates the transportation expense if the student requests it.

... the cheapest bid that North Hunterdon-Voorhees got was $275 a day to take one kid 30 miles twice a day on a seven-passenger minibus.

Forcing taxpayers to shell out almost $50,000 a year for what amounts to about two hours a day of driving is akin to making them stick pencils in their eyes. The waste is enough to make anyone retch.

Taxpayers to Trenton: This is precisely the kind of fiscal lunacy that has caused droves of residents to flee to cheaper, saner climes. It's silly, it's unfair and it has to be fixed.

On this we agree. But, I have to wonder. What if this student wasn't in vo-tech; what if he was in Special Education? There are a lot of out-of-district special ed placements in New Jersey, requiring transportation hither and yon. Those seven-passenger minibuses are ubiquitous on our highways. How many of them are costing local school districts $50K (or more) per year?

Due to privacy concerns, special ed placements and their associated costs are cloaked in secrecy. One hears rumors about six-figure costs for one single special ed student. People whisper about the 2 kids who are transported back & forth each day in hospital beds. These costs are not publicized. But, the aggregate numbers are a line item in the local school budgets. In Caldwell, it amounts to about 15% of the total outlay. That's not chump change.

Assembly members Michael Doherty and Marcia Karrow have sponsored a bill that would limit a district's bill for vo-tech transportation to the same amount set for students going to private schools, $826 a year. That is still almost twice as much as the average cost to bus district pupils, but it is within the realm of reasonable.

Again, we agree. I'd also like to see this bill cap the district's responsibility for special ed transportation at the same rate. And, while we're talking about how twice the average cost is "within the realm of reasonable", why not cap special ed tuition reimbursement at twice the average cost per pupil in the district as well? That would do more to rein in runaway school budgets than a single vo-tech student's bus fare ever will.

Posted at 12:07 by Chris Wysocki   [/rants]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |   |   Tweet