Budgets idle school buses, raising concern for safety

In Poway Unified School District near San Diego, where parents pay $399 for an annual bus pass, several hazardous conditions that once qualified students for bus service -- among them living near a busy intersection or lacking a safe path or sidewalk to school -- no longer are considered. In addition, only routes that draw at least 50 paying riders will operate. The change leaves as many as 1,600 students of all ages without rides.

"It's gotten to the point where we could not continue to do what we have historically done," said Tim Purvis, the district's director of transportation, who budgeted $700,000 for fuel last school year and ended up spending $1.1 million. "I have 26 years of experience in this business, and I've never seen such an erratic year for fuel increases."

In response, private shuttle companies are offering to ferry students to school -- for $400 a month. Purvis predicted that most of the students without bus service would be driven to school in family cars or neighborhood car pools. "School loading/unloading zones are going to be a mess," he said.

They also will be significantly more dangerous, according to Mike Martin, a spokesman for the American School Bus Council trade group.

"School buses are . . . the safest way for kids to get to and from school, bar none," he said.

About 800 children are killed and 152,000 are injured annually during school travel hours; 2% of the deaths and 4% of the injuries involve school buses, according to a 2002 study by the National Research Council. The rest occur when children are walking or bicycling to school, or in family cars, particularly if a teenager is driving.

Extra cars on the roads are also prompting at least one city to threaten to sue a school district over its bus program reductions.

The Capistrano Unified School District in south Orange County eliminated 44 of its 62 bus routes, saving $3.5 million annually and cutting service for 5,000 students who had transportation last year, including Tate's youngest son.

City leaders in surrounding communities are threatening to sue, arguing that the district failed to consider the traffic, noise and pollution implications of its decision.

"The school district, in making those reductions, is going to cause an impact on our students and on our neighborhoods," Mission Viejo Mayor Trish Kelley said.