School bus fare hike a thorny proposal

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

When the Board of Education takes up the proposed doubling of school bus fares later this summer, it will be tackling an issue that has beset schools across the nation: how to cope with rising transportation costs.

An 'Aiea Elementary School student boards a school bus. The DOE is considering doubling bus fare to 50 cents, and raising minimum distance requirements for middle and high school students on O'ahu. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

In Hawai'i, the state Department of Education wants to raise the school fare from 25 cents to 50 cents per ride to help make up part of a projected $4 million deficit in its transportation program, which will cost nearly $26 million next year. The proposed fare increase and changes in bus service could affect up to 30,000 public school students who pay the fare or ride for free. An additional 3,300 special education students also ride free but would not be affected by the plan.

An estimated 80 percent of the 15,000 school districts nationwide provide some kind of student transportation, according to the National Association for Pupil Transportation. But student busing programs are not money-makers, said Mike Martin, the group's executive director.

"You're actually very lucky today if your school bus program is breaking even financially," he said.

Even with a doubling of Hawai'i's fare, the price is a bargain, said Martin.

While the traveling distance of Hawai'i school buses may not be as far as in some Mainland school districts, Martin said paying $1 a day for a round-trip would still be cheaper than the national average of $200 to $250 a year.

"With about 180 days in a school year, you're still looking at $180, something less than the lower end of the national average," he said.

Hawai'i's ridership, cost increases and other factors are in line with programs nationwide, even the eyebrow-raising cost of transportation for special education students, Martin said. But he said Hawai'i is at a disadvantage because it's a statewide school district and does not have the local tax base that many Mainland districts have.

Rising costs and a reduction in state funding in Hawai'i have been aggravated by the soaring cost of transporting special education students as well as free rides for 12,000 regular education students from low-income families, according to acting DOE student transportation services manager Cynthia Kawachi.

It costs nearly as much to bus Hawai'i's 3,300 special education students who require transportation as it does to bus the other 30,000 regular public school students — $11 million versus $13.7 million, respectively — and that has sparked questions among critics.

While the number of special education students requiring transportation has not increased significantly, the cost to bus them has jumped by nearly 40 percent since 1998, largely because of new services ordered by the Felix consent decree as the district has caught up on federal requirements.

Today, the average cost of a one-way ride to school stands at $2.50, according to the DOE, and that figure in itself has generated questions.

Kawachi said the unique requirements of special education bus service raise the average cost for all students. Special education bus transportation is so high because students receive curb-to-curb service from home to school or to a medical service provider and back, according to Kawachi.

"Sometimes it can be busing only one or two special needs students to therapy or a service provider, but we are required by the Felix consent decree to do so," she said.

Each special education school bus also requires an aide onboard who manages the student riders so the bus driver can focus on driving.

"One student with special needs had to be transported from a group home on the Windward side to a Leeward school designed for his needs," she said. Such a trip means three hours of travel at $15 to $17 per hour plus 75 cents a mile, Kawachi said.

Martin pointed to three factors that affect Hawai'i's transportation costs:

• Hawai'i is required by state law to provide bus service to public school students.

"Contrary to popular belief, not all states require school busing," said Martin, who estimated only about one-fourth of the country has state charters requiring student transportation.

While Mainland school districts usually decide whether to mandate bus service at the local level, Hawai'i is at a disadvantage because as a statewide school district, it must bus a larger segment of children, Martin said.

• Many local school boards on the Mainland have county taxes helping fund their bus programs, but Hawai'i doesn't have that luxury. In Fairfax County, Va., approximately 100,000 students ride for free, but nearly all of the $74.1 million program is paid by county property taxes.

• Hawai'i is part of only 3 percent of the nation's school bus programs that charges per ride. In other school districts, parents usually pay an upfront monthly or yearly fee, with the rest of the costs usually subsidized by state and county taxes.

While the collected fares make up a small percentage of school bus funding, the state could gain at least some additional revenue by placing the money in a savings account throughout the school year to gather interest, Martin said.

"That is how it's done in other school districts to milk every dollar out of the fares," he said. "It won't cover all the operating costs, but every dollar counts."

In California, school department transportation supervisor John Green said most of the state's school districts don't charge students to ride the bus. But those that do usually ask for an upfront fee of between $250 and $600.

Kawachi said the DOE is proposing bus passes to students who pay up front monthly.

The DOE recently wrapped up a series of public hearings on the proposed increase, and some opponents of the measure said higher fares will mean fewer students will ride school buses, which a recent national study showed is the safest way of transporting students.

Kahuku High and Intermediate School principal Lisa DeLong said she opposes the proposed changes because they would mainly affect rural areas, which have geographically wider school districts and less frequent city bus service.

"It's basically a safety issue for our students," said DeLong, who is worried some may opt to walk along Kamehameha Highway, where cars go 45 mph or faster. "I would rather have the kids bused than have them walk or drive themselves to school."

While Kawachi expected public opposition to the fare increases at the hearings, she said: "If the BOE doesn't approve this, I don't know how we're going to make up the money."

BOE chair Herbert Watanabe said all of the Neighbor Island counties helped subsidize the state bus program until the 1990s when they underwent budget cuts of their own. Maui is the only Neighbor Island county that still provides money to the state.

"Until a year and a half ago, the Big Island was paying $400,000 from its police budget to help subsidize the bus program there," said Watanabe, who helped run the Big Island school bus program for 28 years as a DOE business specialist. "All of that Neighbor Island money added up."

The BOE will likely discuss the proposal Aug. 1 or 15, said Watanabe. "It's something I want to see discussed before the start of the school year this fall," he said.

Kane'ohe parent Nadine Frost wonders how the proposed fare increase and other changes will affect her family. Frost's son, 15, and daughter, 12, attending Castle High and King Intermediate would not qualify for bus service under the new distance requirement. Frost's 7-year-old daughter would pay the 50 cents to ride to Kapunahala Elementary under the new plan, but would not be affected by the new distance requirement.

Frost said it's more than a mile from their home in Ha'iku Valley to Kahekili Highway, where city buses run to her children's schools.

"I guess I can live with the fare increases, but the minimum distance change concerns me," said Frost, who said the move would affect about 30 middle-school age kids in her community. "I already have to leave really early for work in town, and my husband is on call 24 hours for his job, so we would really have to make some changes transportation-wise."

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2429.