School Bus Fees

[LOLseph Stalin]

Some of you in B.C may already know about this piece of legislation proposed by the LIberal government, but I thought I would bring it to people's attention out of disgust. This will be especially a burden on working class families with multiple children attending school by bus. This is one more reason why i'm so disappointed with the newly re-elected Liberal regime. Here's a random article I found online:

"School District 73 is looking at a transportation funding shortfall. The school board chair has said they will either have to cut routes or charge fees. I say neither is acceptable,” says Norm Macdonald, New Democrat education critic.
If the school board decides to charge fees, students using schoolbuses could pay up to $20 per month for the privilege.
If trustees decide to cut routes, students in the North Thompson Valley could spend even longer on buses each day, traveling to and from their schools.
“We see a consistent pattern of underfunding of education by the B.C. Liberal government,” said Macdonald, the MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke. “Education funding is an issue throughout the province but particularly in rural areas.”
The school board had petitioned the provincial government to end the policy that keeps transportation funding at the 2002 level.
“The government needs to fully fund education,” he said. “They make decisions about cost pressures, such as salaries and the gas tax, and then don’t provide the funds to cover those costs.”
“It puts trustees in an impossible position. The government should give trustees the resources needed. The fact that those needs are ignored is unfair to kids, to parents and to trustees.”

[mykittyhasaboner]

What, the, fuck. Are they seriously going to charge for the school bus? Where is their decency.....OH WAIT!

20 dollars a month is a hell of a lot of money too.

[Il Medico]

What, the, fuck. Are they seriously going to charge for the school bus? Where is their decency.....OH WAIT!

20 dollars a month is a hell of a lot of money too.

Indeed. They are bourgeois and although disgusted, I can't say it surprises me.

[LOLseph Stalin]

What, the, fuck. Are they seriously going to charge for the school bus? Where is their decency.....OH WAIT!

Sadly they want to. The Liberals would rather charge people than fund education themselves. They're an elite party who serves the elite.

[Marx22]

Riding a school bus is a privilege to public school and you have to pay? So what, if they can't pay, they will have to walk? Those are kids, students going to school to learn ffs, they will have to pay 240 a year to a ride a schoolbus, and for what? To put a new soda machine in the teachers lounge? Capitalism....

[LOLseph Stalin]

It's actually not about buying the teachers stuff, but to help pay for bus maintenence and stuff since the Liberals refuse to provide proper funding for education. Instead, the burden is going on parents who may be supporting their family on minimum wage and may have several children riding buses. This of course brings up another question: will some children eventually be forced to drop out since their parents can't pay bus fees in order to get their children to school?

[Psy]

It's actually not about buying the teachers stuff, but to help pay for bus maintenence and stuff since the Liberals refuse to provide proper funding for education. Instead, the burden is going on parents who may be supporting their family on minimum wage and may have several children riding buses. This of course brings up another question: will some children eventually be forced to drop out since their parents can't pay bus fees in order to get their children to school?

If they really want to cut costs why not use economies of scale and get public transportation systems to look after bussing kids? Why not have special runs using normal public buses to only pick up kids and drop them off at schools that would be maintained along with the rest of public buses that would then thrown back into the pool of buses for public transportation after they pickup and drop kids so you don't have school buses just siting around most of the day?

[LOLseph Stalin]

If they really want to cut costs why not use economies of scale and get public transportation systems to look after bussing kids? Why not have special runs using normal public buses to only pick up kids and drop them off at schools that would be maintained along with the rest of public buses that would then thrown back into the pool of buses for public transportation after they pickup and drop kids so you don't have school buses just siting around most of the day?

The parents would still be paying either way, but I do understand your point. If school bus transportation is such a concern they could do something like that. They already want to change school hours in my district to cut down on bus costs. Elementary school would be starting earlier and ending earlier, high school would be starting later and ending later. Of course this would affect everybody's schedules for work, daycare, etc, but it's so they can cut the bus numbers in half since the same bus could do two runs. I have a simpler solution in mind: Give more funding for education.

[mykittyhasaboner]

I have a simpler solution in mind: Give more funding for education.

"No, no, no, this is would be outrageous! What would happen to our profits and systematically legitimized war, and genocide in parts of the world that we don't like!?"

More funding for education would so easily solve all these mundane problems of costs. Really, would it be so bad to organize your education system in the first place, so that students don't need to travel long distances to go to school? I guess the only thought of politicians when trying to fix problems is "We need more money!!" Exactly, so take some out of your fat corporate pockets and give some to education.

I don't often rant, but I felt this was appropriate. To hell with anyone who thinks otherwise.

[Psy]

The parents would still be paying either way, but I do understand your point. If school bus transportation is such a concern they could do something like that. They already want to change school hours in my district to cut down on bus costs. Elementary school would be starting earlier and ending earlier, high school would be starting later and ending later. Of course this would affect everybody's schedules for work, daycare, etc, but it's so they can cut the bus numbers in half since the same bus could do two runs. I have a simpler solution in mind: Give more funding for education.

Every city with public transit has buses just for the rush hours, off peak they are in reserve. So the logical approach would be to bus students off peak with the reserve buses. Of course school boards wouldn't go for this since city bus drivers are unionized but would parents rather entrust the safety of their kids to a unionized driver then to a low paid driver?

[LOLseph Stalin]

Every city with public transit has buses just for the rush hours, off peak they are in reserve.

The public transit in my town actually sucks so i'm not sure how many buses they have in reserve, but even then i'm not sure if they would take too many students to school. However, I do see public transit buses occassionally stopping at my school so I could be wrong. Also, as i've said before the parents(and students) would still have to pay for buses either way. The only difference would be that the transit drivers are probably unionized, which many school districts probably wouldn't like. Also, the needed money isn't going to them to help with the under-funding being experienced by most B.C schools.

[Comrade B]

Typically, the kids I know that take the bus in my town are those that have the least money...

[LOLseph Stalin]

Typically, the kids I know that take the bus in my town are those that have the least money...

Exactly. That's why charging fees will be a financial burden on so many families!

[Comrade B]

What an absolutely horrible idea. Rich people do not understand what it even means to be poor.

[LOLseph Stalin]

Rich people do not understand what it even means to be poor.

Sadly they don't. I was once discussing this issue with a friend. She's more upper middle class and one of the biggest things she has against my beliefs is that she believes i'm just doing it because I was never wealthy, therefore I must be jealous that people who "work hard" have money.

[gorillafuck]

What, the, fuck.

You called?

.....

But seriously, this is disgusting.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Sadly they don't. I was once discussing this issue with a friend. She's more upper middle class and one of the biggest things she has against my beliefs is that she believes i'm just doing it because I was never wealthy, therefore I must be jealous that people who "work hard" have money.

[FONT=Arial]I'm always pinched for words when someone who probably has never struggled for money in their insignificantly short life (due to parents' bank account) tries to criticize socialists and redistributionists.

While we're out in the open complaining: my girlfriend and I actually shared a laugh when our friend attended the local tea party. She (the friend) has never worked a day in her life and is going to Notre Dame on her daddy's dime, yet the thought of a 2% tax increase on the upper echelons of society was JUST TOO DAMN MUCH.

Cutting costs on public education is easy. Fire the school board and upper administration.


[/FONT]

[ZeroNowhere]

This is horrible. Hell, they should be paying the students.

[Guerrilla22]

This reminds me of a quote from a Simpsons episode "Hey they're trying to learn for free, stop them!"

[choff]

My cousins live about thirty miles south of Boston, and their town charges for busfare as well. I don't know any actual figures, but this has been going on here for a few years now. It's absolutely absurd that a public education facility - where attendance is mandated by the state - would have the audacity to make familys pay for the "privelege."