New Law Will Save Taxpayer Money On School Transportation Costs

Legislation Assembly Democrats Connie Wagner, John F. McKeon, Craig J. Coughlin and Gilbert L. “Whip” Wilson sponsored to help save taxpayer money by giving parents the right to waive school transportation services has been signed into law. The law provides that a school district will not be required to provide transportation services to an eligible public school pupil if the pupil’s parent or guardian signs a written statement waiving transportation for the school year.

“This is a common sense way to save taxpayer money,” said Wagner (D-Bergen). “If a parent is driving their child to school every day, then there’s no reason for the school district to have to go through the motions of setting up transportation for the child. This change is for the better.”

“This change ensures that a school district will not be using scarce resources to have transportation services available to pupils who don’t intend to use them during the course of the school year because they may have alternate means of transportation,” said McKeon (D-Essex). “This is yet another step toward easing back on the mandates that cost taxpayer money but defy logic. Any dollar saved is a good thing.”

“We must always be focused on ways to save taxpayer dollars, and this an especially sensible way to do so because it saves money without cutting back on needed school services,” said Coughlin (D-Middlesex). “The savings may not be large, but every dollar counts, especially when we’re easing back on unnecessary mandates. This is a win for taxpayers.”

“Many students these days are driven to school by their parents, yet the taxpayers are still paying to provide transportation,” said Wilson (D-Camden/Gloucester). “We are always working to find ways to save money, and easing back on this type of mandate is a fiscally responsible approach. It will save money while causing no disruption to educational services.”

The bill was approved 78-0 by the Assembly and 39-0 by the Senate in June. TLS.

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14 COMMENTS

  1. How about a bill passed that mandates all children living within the state guidelines for walking – TO WALK. That would save Lakewood a LOT OF TAX PAYER MONEY.

    Bet I get censored.

  2. in fact, let’s stop almost all “necessary” government services and really save loads of dollars. after all, is it really “necessary” to power all the street lights and light signals or to pay for those silly crossing guards. i believe we can even minimize the police force further.. and i don’t wanna hear the same old “safety issue” nonsense excuses.. they didn’t have any of this stuff in the early 1900’s and my parents managed just fine.. they sure as heck weren’t payin the kind of taxes i have to today.

  3. To # 1

    That would be illegal. The district is legally required to provide bussing to all students, public and private school.

    The only suggestion I have for you is to pray that the private school parents get so rich that they will be able to afford their own bussing, and then they will opt out of the district’s bussing as per this new law just passed.

  4. To Yid – “…That would be illegal…”

    No it would not. The state requires busing for those students that live further from the school than the state mandates. All those living within the distance walk. However, I think you are getting mixed up with Courtesy Busing, which Lakewood provides but is not mandated by the state to do so.

  5. Can We have a bill that will allow parents who do not send children to public school to not pay taxes that go to the school district. It only makes sense if we do not use the public school we should not pay for it!

  6. There may be no cost savings, they will just reduce the amount of buses which in turn reduces bus drivers. Guess what the Democrats accomplished more people on unemployment. Sounds like a good plan to me.

  7. If we drive our 6 year old son from yeshiva to avoid the exhausting and long 45 minute ride (his stop is near the end of the run), that’s not because we want to. It’s because it’s not reasonable for a child that age to sit on a bus that long after a 4 PM dismissal. He comes home too exhausted from that. Why aren’t bus runs shorter and grouped by neighborhood, instead of rigidly busing per single school?

  8. If we decide to home school and got vouchers of $6000 per kid, assuming they passed standardized tests, we would solve many problems, including busing. What do you think?

Comments are closed.