School Children Thrown Under the (Private) Bus

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



School Children Thrown Under the (Private) Bus
By Isaiah J. Poole

July 18th, 2008 - 9:57am ET


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It seems that whenever that old cliche applies, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," the Bush administration finds new ways to respond, "We're breaking it. The fix is in."

One of the things that the Bush administration is breaking now is public transportation for school children. Why? So that private businesses like the owner of Greyhound Bus Lines can open up new lines of business offering more expensive private bus service to school districts.

The Federal Transit Administration last month closed its comment period on a new regulation that will cut off federal funding for bus routes that it believes primarily exist to get children to and from school. Under the new rules, a school system could subsidize a child's bus ride on public transit, but a public bus system could not significantly order its routes or schedules for the convenience of these children.

The regulations are a response to a federal court ruling in January that allowed the regional transportation authority in Rochester, N.Y., to do just that. The authority, at the urging of the school board, had created a network of new bus routes after the board changed the class times for its high schools and after the private bus service that the board had contracted with said it could not provide service during the new times. The FTA's regional administrator, Brigid Hynes-Cherin, said the authority's actions violated regulations governing federal mass transit funding because even though the routes could be used by general public, they weren't primarily for the general public. Plus, she added—and here is where we get to the real nub of the issue—public bus systems can't use federal money to provide services that compete with, or crowd out, private sector bus companies.

The court ruled, however, that Rochester was fully operating within the rules as they had been interpreted over the years by the FTA. Defeated in the courts, the FTA's administrator, James S. Simpson, ordered the rules rewritten. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/school-children-thrown-under-private-bus

[Hannah Bell]

1. i hate those sick sobs.

the district & city work together to provide school transport cheaper than dedicated service/private service & the bush admin deliberately nixes it so private operators can rake off more public $.

sick parasitic sobs. everytime you turn around they're doing something like this.

[shanti]

2. it's a free-for-all

for the * cronies to come and get the last scraps before he's gone!

[marmar]

3. "* cronies to come and get the last scraps before he's gone!"

Yup. The public trough has been opened......to everyone except the public.