Yellow Bus Service Still at Risk For City Schoolchildren

Among the most-contested items on the School District of Philadelphia's budget chopping block this year has been the transportation service provided to hundreds of thousands of the city's schoolchildren.

The district currently pays for yellow bus service or SEPTA TransPasses to help qualified kids get to school.  This includes public and private school students who live in the city limits who qualify based on the distance they live from their school, their special needs status, and other factors. 

But the  included a 42 percent cut to transportation expenses, which would eliminate all bussing for elementary school students (except charter school kids) and all TransPasses provided to older children.

For several weeks now, the District has been working on a deal with SEPTA that would , but a solution for yellow bus service has not yet been reached.

For many parents and school advocates, this situation is untenable.

“There must be yellow bus services and transportation provided to the children in the district,” said Gerald Wright, a representative of Parents United for Public Education. Along with his group, Wright has been working to restore funding to full-day kindergarten and transportation, and has called for greater city oversight of the District’s finances.

The group’s founder, Helen Gym, wrote in an email that Parents United believes transportation is a bigger priority that the Promise Academies and summer school programs that are not in danger of being cut.

Wright said the large number of children going to schools outside their neighborhood catchements makes district-provided transportation even more important. Wright lives in Germantown, and his daughter attends John S. Jenks School in Chestnut Hill.

Michael Gonzales is also watching the school bus debate with interest. He and his wife, Meg Flores, live in Chestnut Hill with their three daughters, who are currently attending preschool, kindergarten and second grade respectively. The older girls go to Green Woods Charter School.

This year, Gonzales and Flores drive have a carpool with another family because their middle daughter is in kindergarten and therefore not eligible for bussing. If yellow school bus service is eliminated, they’ll have to keep carpooling.

“Our transportation situation is so crazy,” Gonzales said. The expense of driving on to Center City after dropping the kids off is significant, between gas and parking, and Gonzalez’s work day starts an hour later on the days he drops the kids off.

“There’s no time for error in our morning commute,” he said. 

Next year, said Gonzalez, will be even worse, when an expansion at Green Woods will mean driving his daughters to two different campuses.

Philadelphia’s threatened school buses are receiving attention nationally from organizations like the American School Bus Council, an advocacy group based in Alexandria, Va.

ASBC coordinator Clark Barrineau said school districts in many other states, including Ohio, Illinois, Florida, and Connecticut, are looking at eliminating or reducing school bus service. But Barrineau said studies show that school buses are the safest and most effective way to get our children to and from school.

“Putting kids on the bus is safer than a parent driving them,” he said. “It’s even safer than walking, statistically.” Busing also reduces truancy, and school buses have a positive impact on traffic and on the environment.

“Every school bus on the road takes 36 cars off the road,” said Barrineau.

Gonzalez said he would be riding his bike to work if he didn’t have to drive a minivan full of children to school on his way to the office.

Other districts are searching for solutions. Barrineau said some are looking at increasing sales taxes, charging parents a fee for using bus service, putting advertisements on the busses and establishing creative routing and scheduling to try and reduce costs.

In Philadelphia, the mayor, City Council, and the School Reform Commission are still looking for a way to restore yellow bus service for the 2011-2012 school year.

Wright is optimistic that a solution will be found. He thinks that transportation is the number two priority among city leaders (after ).

“Honestly, I think this is going to get done,” he said. “I can’t believe we’ll be sitting here next year with buses not running.”

Thousands of parents all across the city are hoping he’s right.