Ohio – A growing transportation crisis in Ohio is leaving thousands of families scrambling for solutions after school districts determined that roughly 22,000 students were too difficult or costly to transport during the current academic year. The situation has reignited a long-running debate over who should be responsible for transporting students, how taxpayer dollars should be spent, and whether Ohio’s current system is placing unsustainable burdens on public school districts.
According to a draft report prepared by the Ohio Pupil Transportation Workgroup, approximately 22,000 students were declared “impractical” to transport. Of those students, about 21,000 attend private schools. The findings mean that more than one-third of Ohio’s private school students no longer have guaranteed access to school bus transportation.
The issue stems from a state law dating back to 1965 that requires public school districts to provide transportation for many charter and private school students who live within district boundaries. While the law establishes transportation obligations, it also allows districts to decide that transporting certain students is impractical under specific circumstances…