Missing The Bus: Paying For School Transportation

Michigan has a huge difference in sizes and populations across its school districts. Being more spread out means higher transportation costs (especially for lower population areas), and that money has to come from somewhere…mainly, classrooms. This is a big problem for the state, and getting bigger as things get more expensive. But there’s good news: a new report gives us some hope for a good solution!

Here are Five Fast Facts on how Michigan can pay for higher school transportation costs:

  1. 📝 The Study - A study was done in 2018 and updated again in 2022 that looks at how to fund school transportation, which was 3% of all school spending. They considered having kids eat lunch on buses to get more funding, but the extra cleanup costs made it unhelpful.

  1. 😨 The Concern - Transportation costs are one of the biggest concerns for rural schools, which spend almost double the percentage of their budget here compared to city schools. And that doesn’t even include tow trucks to pull buses out of muddy ditches!

  1. 🔍 The Model - The study looked at transportation funding policies from the other 49 states and came up with a model that would work best for us. It suggests grouping districts by student density, then provides funding based on the average costs of the whole group. We like to call it blender funding!

  1. 💲 The Example - Let’s say District 1 and District 2 are in the same density group that has an average cost of $927. District 1 spends $848 per bus rider, so they would get full funding for its transportation. District 2 spends $2,774 per rider, so they would get funding for the group average of $927. The real question is: do taxpayers get a refund of the remainder from District 1?

  1. 🚌 The Costs - Not only is there no free lunch, there’s also no free bus. This proposal would cost around $400 million per year, a 2% increase in the overall schools budget for the state. Why is it that taxpayer funded things never get less expensive? #profoundmystery

🔥Bottom line: The end result could be well worth it, though. Another study of the unusually high absenteeism rate this year in big districts shows that attendance increases noticeably when poor families can use the school bus. As the new legislative session begins, this will be one of many things our reps will consider. If you have opinions, give ‘em a call and let ‘em know.

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