Rick Perry's Texas - $185 a semester fee to ride school bus - Ed Shultz last night covered

[RamboLiberal]

KELLER (CBSDFW.COM) – The Keller ISD school board approved a plan Monday night to make parents pay for students who wish to ride the bus.

Under the plan, parents or guardians will pay $185 a semester for one child to ride the bus and $135 for a second child. Students who get free and reduced lunches will have to pay $100.

“There will be buses,” superintendent James Veitenheimer told parents after initial worries that there wouldn’t be bus service during the school year. “They just won’t be free.”

After initially saying there would be no monthly payment plan, Keller ISD officials said Tuesday that parents could, after all, pay on a month-to-month basis.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/07/18/north-texas-students-may-have-to-pay-to-ride-school-bus/

[Glimmer of Hope]

1. What the hell? Can they do that?

[tanyev]

2. They kind of had to after the fine people of Keller voted down a tax increase.

[Glimmer of Hope]

3. A tax increase on a certain income bracket?

[tanyev]

6. Keller school voters defeat tax rate increase

Posted Saturday, Jun. 18, 2011

Keller school district voters rejected a 13-cent increase in the tax rate Saturday, which means that another round of layoffs and cuts is on the horizon.

In unofficial results, almost 56 percent of voters opposed the increase while 44 percent favored it.

More than 14,000 residents voted.

"The community has spoken," school board President Kevin Stevenson said. "We've always been an efficient district; now we have the challenge of trying to maintain the best education we can for the dollars we have."


Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/18/3162711/keller-school-voters-defeat-tax.html#ixzz1W523vJqH

[Bok_Tukalo]

4. There was a fee before for students a certain distance away

Now they have changed it to make up for a budget shortfall.

[ret5hd]

5. So...law requires kid goes to school...

parent(s) can't pay for bus...
kid doesn't get to school...
kid gets placed in foster care.

PAY ME $185 A SEMESTER OR I"LL TAKE YOUR KID!

[tammywammy]

7. The child could walk. n/t

[sudopod]

9. They don't have sidewalks there.

Those are for drug dealers and dirty hippies. Real Americans drive on roads like God intended.

[rainbow4321]

8. The article left out the district "found out" they have MORE more $ in the budget

so the district parents are really pissed over this now. Was listening to a local radio news report about this and the radio anchor was trying to pin down a board member on WHY they were still going to charge parents when it was "discovered" that the district budget was waaaaayyyy more in the black than initially thought. The board guy was like "uh, oh, well, er, ya know that money needs to last a few years, so, um, we'll have to talk to the school district, and, yeah, well, BYE...".

[w8liftinglady]

10. All I can say is bus service has been outsourced to a private contractor.

http://www.durhamschoolservices.com/Default.aspx

It will not be provided by The Keller ISD.

[Ilsa]

11. In very rural areas, cutting out bus routes or consolidating routes

causes a lot of hardship on families. Some kids are waiting for their buses in the dark (it's so early when they catch it) because the bus has to cover part of a former route. Not everyone in the country has two cars for transportation.

The kids who need the most help are having to do with less at school, too. Fewer aides to help Pre-K teachers, fewer counselors with more students, fewer teachers, bigger classrooms.

[w8liftinglady]

12. Exactly. My son had to take a bus in the Red Oak ISD when he was 8

He left for the bus at 6 AM to be at school at 715 AM.I had no choice at the time. My then-partner and I were both day shift nurses who had to be at work at 630 AM.It sucked. I can imagine if I were a minimum wage worker who had to come up with another $40/mo per kid.

[Drale]

13. If you live within 3/4 mile of our local schools and

don't have to cross a major street or any other dangerous area like a construction zone, and you want to take the bus you have to pay for it in our districts.