California Preparing for 20 Percent Budget Cuts for School Transportation

By Ryan Gray

The Los Angeles Times blogs about "A mixture of worry and measured relief for state school districts" as California legislators have come to a compromise to solve a $26 billion budget shortfall. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger earlier this month proposed cuts to school transportation as a means of closing the expenditure gap resulting in a demonstration at the state capitol last week by school bus drivers and teachers. The rally, which included school buses circling the capitol, appeared not to have worked

While the budget was still being written by legislators and no final numbers were available in advance of a scheduled vote on Thursday, state school transportation is expected to be cut for the 2009-2010 school year by 20 percent. And that's not to mention cuts to other programs as the state attempts to keep as much money in the classroom as possible.

As the Times writes, schools have already begun laying off school bus drivers:

In anticipation of proposed cuts, the rural Mojave Unified District gave notice to all 17 of its bus drivers. About two-thirds of the district’s 3,000 students rely on bus service to get to school. District Supt. Larry Phelps said he hoped to salvage some of those jobs as well as some student transportation in a district where more than half the students are from low-income families.

We'll be talking to John Green, the state director of pupil transportation with the California Department of Education, over the weekend at the STN EXPO to get more details on how the environment will shape up.