Should Public School Districts Pay for Private School Busing?
The state requires public school districts to pay the transportation costs for students attending private and parochial schools.
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New Jersey public school districts have been paying to bus parochial and private school students for years.
A report in The Asbury Park Press puts the annual cost at $77 million a year for about 90,000 students of religious and other private schools, money that comes out of local budgets funded by property taxes.
According to the paper, districts are required "to spend up to $884 on transportation for each student attending a private school, be it on a school bus or a parent driving the child to class." The state is one of only a handful that pay for private-school busing, with 34 banning all public funding for private schooling.
Patch wants to know what you think. Offer your thoughts in the comments section below.
kathy
6:20 pm on Monday, May 14, 2012
By sending a child to private school, the town saves $12,000 per student. We pay the same tax bill so the busing reimbursement is still a windfall for the town.
Monk
6:36 pm on Monday, May 14, 2012
Another way of looking at this is that families sending their children to private and parochial schools are pulling their own weight and the weight of those sending to public schools. Education vouchers, please.
sp resident
9:47 pm on Monday, May 14, 2012
I think it would be unfair to pay all this property tax and send your children to a private school and not be able to use the bus. It really doesn't matter what school you go to, if you live in the town and pay taxes there then you should be able to use the bus.
Linda
11:43 am on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Hell no! You want to send your kids to private schools then you pay for them to be bused!
Nancy Valerio
10:15 am on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
x
Resident of SP
6:24 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Linda, if we pay property tax in this town and pay for your kids to go to the public schools then we should be able to send our kids to a private school to get a better education on the buses that we pay for.
CP
9:12 am on Wednesday, May 16, 2012
In Summit, the town is not required to pay for busing private school students because it doesn't offer busing for the public school students. But, as others have argued, we're saving the town plenty sending our kids to private school. As taxpayers, it seems only fair we receive the bus subsidy. In addition to the cost of teachers and staff, imagine all the additional school building capacity the town would need if all of the private schoolers suddently shifted to public school.