A scramble is underway for some Ohio households over a staple of the back-to-school season: rides on the massive, yellow college bus.
Public college districts canceled bus transportation for 1000’s of excessive schoolers once more this 12 months whereas in some circumstances nonetheless busing college students to personal and constitution faculties to keep away from steep fines beneath state necessities. In Dayton, a stopgap effort that provides college students public transit passes in lieu of college bus rides was briefly restored by a choose final week. This got here after the district sued, alleging the state illegally restricted this system.
The crunch for rides emerged as a bus driver scarcity was compounded by Ohio’s college transportation rules and its growth to a common voucher program to assist pay for college students to attend non-public faculties. Districts have been required for years to move college students with EdChoice vouchers, however disputes over how to do this intensified as this system added practically 90,000 college students over the previous 4 years.
Public {dollars} for busing non-public college students
Advocates for public training argue Ohio’s transportation mandates are rigid, imprecise and costly.
It makes public college districts accountable for transporting Okay-8 college students to their non-public or constitution faculties, even on district holidays or when buses break down. It additionally requires districts to increase no matter transportation service they provide to their very own excessive schoolers to each excessive schooler at a personal or constitution college in the identical space.
Some massive districts responded by canceling bus service to excessive faculties altogether, offering metropolis transit passes the place accessible or leaving public college college students to search out their very own rides. And people districts nonetheless might need to bus non-public college students if these college students weren’t notified inside a sure timeframe.
“To know that they are having to take those public dollars to funnel into other entities is not a fair situation, and I don’t think that it’s right,” stated Ronnee Tingle, a Dayton mother whose Seventh-grader rides the college bus and whose teenagers in public college should take a metropolis bus.
Her daughter Suelonnee Tingle, a senior, begins her mornings checking an app for when a public bus will arrive at her cease. Using it’s “not bad,” however studying routes, catching connections and getting to highschool on time might be difficult as arrival occasions fluctuate, she stated.
Dayton Superintendent David Lawrence calls it “madness” that the Republican-led Legislature diverted roughly $2.5 billion in state training funding to the voucher program over the subsequent two years — and nonetheless continues to be is requiring public districts to foot transportation prices for these college students. His district runs 54 bus routes for its college students and 74 for personal college students, in line with information compiled by the Ohio 8 Coalition, representing the eight largest districts.
The Dayton district may simply present bus rides for all of its public college college students if the state ended a number of the necessities about transporting voucher college students, Lawrence stated.
“If we didn’t have to transport charter school and parochial students, we could transfer all of our students almost door to door from K through 12,” he stated. That might additionally assist get rid of ancillary points that arose with public excessive schoolers making their very own methods to highschool, together with disruptions on metropolis buses and threats to their bodily security, he stated.
Footing the invoice
Republican state Sen. Andrew Brenner, a college selection advocate who chairs the Senate Schooling Committee, stated he doesn’t consider that monetary hardship, logistical nightmares and driver recruitment challenges are creating a college transportation disaster in Ohio, as public training advocates contend.
“That’s a completely inaccurate description,” he stated. “What they have done is they’re excluding all the kids with school choice in many districts and they’re doing everything they can to avoid transporting them.”
Brenner stated lawmakers supplied districts with $1,500 per pupil to cowl the prices of transporting voucher college students, and he accused districts of abusing a provision that lets them deem busing the voucher college students “impractical” and make “payment in lieu” of transportation to these households. The quantity ranges from roughly $600 to $1,200 per pupil this 12 months to offset the households’ prices.
Public college districts argue that transporting each private and non-private college students prices far more than the state gives for it, contributing to price range woes. For Ohio’s largest districts, the hole can complete tens of millions of {dollars}.
Transportation burdens for folks
Cleveland paid households for two,739 college students it deemed impractical to move to personal faculties this fiscal 12 months, in line with state information. Columbus was second on the record, paying for about 2,500. The state has sued Columbus faculties, accusing the district of shirking mandates about transporting voucher college students.
“Parents are being forced to quit their jobs, rearrange their livesand scramble for transportation, while the school board fails to meet its legal duties,” Republican Lawyer Common Dave Yost stated final 12 months. The case continues to be pending.
Columbus defended the choice, arguing that folding these personal college college students into its operation — a complicated, software-driven enterprise whose buses transport greater than 16,000 public and three,400 personal college students alongside some 450 routes — was unworkable. Spokesperson Mike Brown stated the district has $75 million budgeted this college 12 months for transportation, and one other $15 million budgeted for transportation-related fines.
Lawrence stated Ohio’s setup requires public districts to cowl overhead for transportation techniques. In Dayton, that features buses that may value greater than $150,000 every, a secure of $66,000-a-year mechanics, a $1.1 million upkeep division, and drivers who make about $22 an hour with advantages on common. These wages intention to offset the “Amazon effect” of drivers selecting bundle supply over ferrying youngsters for causes together with consolation, schedule flexibility and pay.
Brenner stated he’d wish to see extra public faculties discover the advantages of mixing operations inside counties to share assets.
The state’s largest city and suburban districts — the Ohio 8 — argue lawmakers may assist clear up the problem by updating “antiquated” legal guidelines and rules to align with present realities.
A examine group was created within the final price range however tasked with finding out only one situation: how you can get personal college students to highschool on days when public districts are closed. Its suggestions are due in June 2026.
Fortune International Discussion board returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and international leaders will collect for a dynamic, invitation-only occasion shaping the way forward for enterprise. Apply for an invite.
