211 School Bus Routes May Be Dropped
by Rod Hughes
Some 211 school bus routes providing free transport to public school students may be eliminated by the Ministry of Education. But the free ride is not over for the students affected, said Minister of Education Leonardo Garnier. The routes are served by public buses and the ministry would pay the fares. No date was announced for the decision about the routes.
Contracted private school buses have been the subject of criticism for lack of supervision on board and for their often delapidated state. Students have been killed in collisions and, most recently, a student thrust his head out of the bus and was decapitated before the horrified eyes of his schoolmates.
Currently, the ministry has contracted 727 routes hauling some 85,000 students, mostly in rural areas.
A study by the Ministry of Transport revealed that 61 routes coincide with public transportation but that they should be retained for night students because public buses reduce their frequency of service drastically as the evening progresses.