Our school corporation consumes 66% off all property taxes in Floyd County.
A significant portion of those taxes go toward transportation. We've budgeted $1.3 million for bus replacement in 2008 alone, with an additional $1.3 million earmarked for future purchases. $1.3 million buys 15 buses. The school system operates 130 of them.
According to the NA/FC Consolidated School System web site, those buses travel about 1 million miles a year. With mileage at 10 miles per gallon and diesel fuel prices at $3.50 per gallon, that's $350,000 per year in fuel costs.
That doesn't include driver contracts or salaries, insurance, and maintenance. It also doesn't take into account the school system's penchant for closing schools in walkable neighborhoods and expanding them in far flung, sparsely populated areas, requiring more, not less, driving.
No one pays a direct fare to ride the buses. People who would pay fares are restricted from them, even though 17% of all households and 24% of rental households in six of New Albany's inner city census tracts have no vehicle access and we could all save money and fossil fuels with adequate public transportation.
I'll be the first to defend investment in public education as beneficial to the common good but, having purposely decided to live within walking distance of public schools, I'm confused as to how spending inordinate sums of money to set a bad example of unsustainable practice for our children as a part of their educational experience is beneficial or defensible.
Anyone care to educate me?
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19 comments:
I wonder if it would be possible to fashion a system of bus transportaion for students that uses TARC buses. That would put TARC in charge of maintenance while giving them some income to cover the less traveled routes. It may also break down some of the apparent stigma adolescents have about riding the bus.
This would probably only apply to students and schools within the city limits or a close approximation of existing TARC routes. But it may help build a more functional transportaion system that would benefit the entire community. Oil is hovering around $110 a barrel; although late, when is a better time to start dealing with theproblem?
Well, Jeff, I teach my kiddos that they can be who they want to be in life - and that includes living where they choose. Might there be adequate housing on your block for the entire county to reside, therefore all our children can walk to school? Wait, what do we do when they move on to middle school? Move again? Maybe we can build huge high-rise apartments on Vincennes? Not everyone wants to live in the city. John, your plan for quasi-privatization of busing sounds a lot like a conservative standpoint!
Can we take a page from Jefferson County's playbook on busing? Their's is quite the model of efficiency. Let's bus kids from the Knobs downtown and bus kids from the county to the Knobs. Forget neigborhood schools. Who needs 'em?
Why can we not have the students at Prosser do the maintenance, if they aren't already? How about hedging fuel purchases with other school corporations? How about planning for future fuel increases while looking to new technologies for our energy needs?
Daniel, you bring up a good point in an interesting discussion. What if biofuel were running some buses here? Purdue is coming, can they jumpstart some ethanol scheme? Isn't corn King here?
Gina,
You don't want to go down the road of corn based ethanol. Variety of reasons including studies that show that the amount of fossil fuels used to produce ethanol is hardly offset by the ethanol made. Another biggie, is using a foodstuff for fuel.
Just a short note on the foodstuff. The American consumer is in for a very rude awakening on food prices in the next 6-12 months. Corn is double. Wheat is double or more. Barley is up 50%+. Soybeans, the same story. Add transportation costs(fuel). Not only are these products our direct food sources, they also make up the mixes for livestock feed. Farmers have been and are continuing to sell off livestock because they can't afford to feed them. In the short run, that keeps prices down. That's why I say 6-12 months. So get ready, your Wheaties breakfast, hamburger for lunch and pork chop for dinner is going to cost a lot more.
Daniel,
Not everyone wants to live in the city, but we need to make walkable city life a viable option in New Albany and focus our resources where they have the greatest impact. If you want to live out in the county, more power to you, but the taxpayers shouldn't subsidize the disproportionate transportation costs.
A better option is to support neighborhood schools (like Silver Street Elementary, for example) that have a positive economic and social impact far greater than teaching the three Rs. In fact, one of the reasons I choose to live in Silver Grove is that I know my son will be able to walk/bike to a tight-knit, community-oriented elementary school (and...we won't have to move - middle and high school are also within walking distance).
Brandon, how exactly are you subsidizing my children's use of a schoolbus? By paying taxes? I have elderly neighbors that haven't had children in school since the 1970's and they still pay taxes for education. My kids are not on reduced lunch, but my tax dollars go to help those that need it - and I am fine with that. We aren't subsidizing buses, we are paying for education.
That's a valid point, because we all pay taxes that go to education, but I wrote subsidizing "disproportionate" transportation costs.
The point being that your choice to live away from government services (and the school board's decision to cater to that choice) is hogging resources. Perhaps you would be willing to pay a premium for bus service if you live x miles away from where you send your kids to school? Heck, we can even adjust it for income.
That's not fair? Then maybe we can raise your property taxes. :)
How about giving residents that live a few blocks from a school a tax credit if their kids walk to school uphill both ways, in the snow?
Ever the constructive contributor.
Daniel, from whence comes the anger?
This is a really good question. I wish that I did have a good answer.
I live on the outskirts and no school is in walking distance to my house. When my kids (who are now in college) were younger they took buses. Most of their years on a bus were in Ohio, but same deal. When I lived in Ohio I was a co-chair person of a school levy committee and we had to pass a permanent improvement levy for maintenance, and school bus repair and purchasing. On school buses, brakes, for example, need to be replaced a far lesser mileage than cars for obvious reasons.
Maybe a 'bus fee' for the year would be a good option or a rebate credit for those who do not use buses. I do believe that people have a right to live where they choose, but we all live with consequences, positive or negative, of choices. Perhaps this is the most equitable approach.
Sadly, with the cost of fuel, this issue is only going to get worse. Schools end up cutting teachers when they get into budget difficulties and that can't be an improvement.
I didn't take that as an angry comment - it made me laugh. It's not like we ever have school when it snows here anyway..thanks to all those buses driving in the knobs. (joke)
Roger, I feel that the argument that if I live out in the county, I must be irresponsible is getting old. Even if I move to the city, someone is going to purchase my current home. If I have to pay a fee for the bus, I will drive my kids to school, further harming the environment and my wallet. Let's work on solutions for everyone and not beating up the evil county dwellers.
Then try responding to the facts as offered, and not lashing back with foolishness.
Daniel, think of it as "pay-as-you-go". You live way out and don't mind the extra expense. I live in a walkable city because, well, I like to walk and it's cheaper. Put up the extra $$ for your choice if resources are scarce is all I'm saying.
It is truly amazing how imposing your view of the world and how and where people should live seems so righteous.
Last I recall, we still lived in a free society.
There will never be a completely fair way to fix this problem, but taxing people because they choose to live in the county is absurd.
I pay taxes and my kids don't even use the buses or the public school system.
If we were all taxed on only what we use, the tax system would be even more cumbersome.
Goodness. The "liberals" are arguing for market principles and the "conservatives" are advocating government subsidy.
If I'd have known ahead of time exactly how many posts on the same relative topic it would take to get to this point, I'd have posted them all right in a row.
Since the the labels have been at least temporarily shed, now what?
I wasn’t serious about the bus tax. Calm down.
taxing people because they choose to live in the county is absurd.
We already get taxed different rates depending on where we choose to live (well, at least where we choose to own property). If it turns out that county folks are having a disproportionate impact on school resources, then why shouldn’t the school corporation tax rates be able to reflect that?
HB,
I just had to laugh when I read your comment and especially the word "righteous".
In the greater context of world view, how is your kettle?
Mark
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