Rural schools struggle to keep buses running (CA eliminating school transportation funding?) [View all]

[The Straight Story]

(CA) There are no sidewalks, bike lanes or public transportation in Forks of Salmon, a tiny, forest-shrouded community deep in the mountains of Siskiyou County. For seven of the 10 students at Forks of Salmon Elementary School, getting to class means taking a 45-minute school bus ride on 18 miles of a narrow, two-lane road that twists and turns with the Salmon River.

Until this month, most of the $32,000 the school spends each year to bus students was covered by the state. But now, Forks of Salmon and other rural school districts are grappling with how to keep their buses running. Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed eliminating school transportation funding next year, just weeks after announcing trigger cuts that wiped out $248 million for buses this year.

California does not require school districts to provide home-to-school transportation, except for certain special education students and those who are severely disabled or orthopedically impaired; less than 16 percent of students statewide ride school buses. But ridership is significantly higher in many rural areas, where sparsely populated, sprawling communities necessitate bus service, officials say.

"If we don't have transportation, we don't have school," said Tina Bennett, Forks of Salmon's superintendent, who also serves as its principal, first-through-third-grade teacher and bus driver.

http://www.news10.net/news/article/172140/2/Rural-schools-struggle-to-keep-buses-running-