Dykema's
School Transportation Bill Receives Favorable Report
Representative Carolyn Dykema is pleased to announce that a bill she
filed last January, H.3658, An Act Relative to School Transportation,
has been reported favorably out of the Joint Committee on Education as
part of a consolidated bill that establishes a commission on school
transportation concerns.
The
assessment of bus fees, which was the subject of Representative
Dykema’s bill, is among the issues that will be scrutinized
by the new commission. In addition to addressing the question of fees,
the commission will investigate regional school and special education
transportation and propose ways to manage school transportation more
cost-effectively. Specific cost saving measures to be looked at include
optimization of bus routing through the use of shared software,
collaboration among school districts, and outsourcing transportation
administration to a third party.
“As
towns struggle to balance their school budgets, the state
needs to play an active role in proposing strategies for controlling
the high cost of school transportation,” said Dykema.
“This commission will be charged with providing actionable
solutions and I hope the bill will come up for a vote soon so the
commission can start its work. It’s especially good news that
the commission will also look into concerns raised by my constituents
related to the assessment of fees.”
A
report of the Commission’s findings and recommendations
would be due by the end of 2010. The bill must be passed by both the
House and the Senate before the Commission can be established.
