Indiana Supreme Court: Schools don't have to bus students

[Newsjock]

Source: Indianapolis Star

The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that public schools are not constitutionally required to bus students to and from school.

The ruling further clarifies state law, which already permitted public school corporations to opt out of providing transportation services.

The case stems from a decision by Franklin Township Community Schools to discontinue free bus service in the 2011-12 school year. Parents, upset by the district's action, filed a class-action lawsuit based on the premise that students had a constitutional right to bus service.

... Last June, the Indiana Court of Appeals found the school district violated the constitution when it stopped providing transportation to and from school. But the Supreme Court justices rejected that, saying that although the constitution refers to a free public education, "the framers did not intend for every aspect of public education to be free."

Read more: http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/03/24/high-court-constitution-require-school-bus-service/70379874/

[rpannier]

1. Decision is probably sound

California stopped providing buses because they wanted to charge in the late 80's.
Cheapskates in places like Walnut Creek (wealthier area of California) sued saying that public education in California was supposed to be free
The courts gave districts in California two choices: free buses or no buses.
They opted for no buses.
The decision by the districts have held up. If there is an appeal, they have little ground to stand on

[jwirr]

9. How do children living in rural areas get into school? Most of the children in our schools live in

the country and are not in walking distance of the schools.

[happyslug]

11. What do you mean by "walking distance"?

In my home state of Pennsylvania the State law is further than one mile requires bus transportation, but less than one mile it is uo to the local school board.

On the other hand county borders were set up so you could walk to the county seat and then back home in a day AND transact any business in that county seat on that day. Thus everything in a county is within "walking distance".

This is the rule from the Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean. As you enter the western mountains the counties get larger except along the coast from San Francisco to Canada were they return to the eastern size.

Such walks were how most people moved around prior to WWII. Railroads became an option only in the 1840s (and for most of the country after the Civil war). Automobiles started to be how most rural residents moved around in the 1920s. Urban areas only embraced the automobile after WWII.

Other options were Streetcars but only from the 1890s onward. Buses starting in the 1920s. Till the post WWII embracing of the Automobile the other options were secondary to walking. Thus walking distance can mean 20 or more miles in length. If we assume you are walking to a location to do something.

If you do not include doing something at a location you could do over 70 miles in a day as in the "Long Walk" of the 1730s were speed walkers from England to determine a treaty limit of a Day and and half walk set by the treaty between William Penn and the Delaware tribe. See the "Walking purchase" for details on that land steal.

Just pointing out "Walking Distance" can mean different length to different people and if you are going to use that term you will have to define it first.

More on the "Walking Purchase of 1737":

http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/WalkingPurchase.html

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5252142385417592748&q=Delaware+Nation+v.+Pennsylvania,+446+F.3d+410&hl=en&as_sdt=6,39&as_vis=1

[Marthe48]

20. Child endangerment?

Parents in Maryland were charged because they let their children walk by themselves to a small playground on their street, so the kids would learn to be independent. It is hard to imagine parents allowing their kids to walk any distance alone. So parents will have to drive their kids, meaning more congestion, pollution, wear and tear on public streets. So great big chunk out of revenue. Oh wait, maybe the next step is government doesn't have to provide paved streets. That's right Republicans, shrink government so it fits in a bathtub, and throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[jwirr]

23. My point was that without a bus most rural children (outside city limits) would not be able to go to

school. No doubt that law was passed when we still had little country schools in local rural areas.

[Adrahil]

28. IN my area of Indiana...

The locals voted not to raise local taxes to pay for school buses... a consequence of lost revenue due to property tax caps introduced a few years ago.

But here it is often not safe to walk to school. Especially in the inter, it is sometimes dangerously cold out (I mean wind chill 20-30 below), and with the snow, there is nowhere to safely walk, even with (ESPECIALLY with) the rods plowed. Along with SB101 just passed by the Legislature, Indiana begine it's swirl around the bowl. Ten years from now, the RWG's will wonder what happened, and I'll be here to say, "I told ya so."

[notadmblnd]

2. One would think that the cost of transportation is included in the district's budget and if so

then the buses are not free- but is being paid for by the tax payers in the form of their annual school tax bill.

[Marthe48]

21. You'd think...

...but obviously, the Indiana judiciary is hellbent on finding ways to make public education inconvenient.

[notadmblnd]

22. I think maybe the attorneys are lazy

one thing I learned a long time ago is that you can not just trust your hired guns to do their jobs. You must constantly follow up with what they are doing for you and push them if necessary.

I mean really, how much effort would it take to see if transportation is included in the school budget and make that argument to the court if that is indeed a fact?

[Marthe48]

29. I think under Pence

Indiana may as well close its borders. He is taking the whole state backward and downward. I don't know what is wrong with people.

[smirkymonkey]

34. Hear, hear!

He's turning the state in to a third-world theocracy. What a joke.

[Marthe48]

36. Progressives need to get out and vote

in every election! Make sure Dems are elected and then help them keep their resolve!

[happyslug]

3. Here is the actual opinion

Last edited Tue Mar 24, 2015, 10:26 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/03241501shd.pdf

The court had to look at the Education clause of the Indiana State Constitution:

Article 8, Section 1 of the Indiana Constitution (the Education Clause), which provides:

Knowledge and learning, generally diffused throughout a community, being essential to the preservation of a free government; it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and to provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.

And the underlying state law (here is the 2014 version of that law, (a) is the clause in question:

(a) The governing body of a school corporation may provide transportation for students to and from school.

(b) If the governing body of a school corporation: (1) provides transportation; or (2) contracts with an education service center . . . to provide transportation; no fee may be charged to a parent or student for transportation to and from school. However, a fee may be charged for transportation to and from an athletic, a social, or another school sponsored function.

The Supreme Court of Indiana ruled that the word "may" in the State Law on Schools means may not shall and since the underlying law uses the word "may" that also means the School "may not" provide such transportation. The Court then looked at the State Constitution and the phase "wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all. The court then ruled the State Constitutional provision clearly addresses only tuition NOT any other costs, thus the State Constitution does NOT mandate free transportation, that is up to the local school board or the state to provide, if they want to.

Please note the underlying State Statute was rewritten in 2012 to forbid charging a fee for such services, prior to 2012, when this lawsuit was pending, the Statute was silent on that issue (i.e. did not mention if a fee for transportation could be charged, the court ruled that, prior to the change in the law, the local school boards could charge for transportation).

Thus the Indiana Supreme Court, relying on Indiana law, ruled that they is NO State Constitutional right to transportation to go to and from school, but since 2012 if such bus services is provided it must be free under the Statute passed by the Indiana Legislature.

[Cryptoad]

4. GOP applying ,,,

their women's logic of "keep em barefoot and pregnant" to students...... an educated critical thinking populous gives the GOP's nightmares with cold sweats.

[cstanleytech]

5. If they discontinued bus service in my area it would be a devastating blow

to the more rural and poor kids which is why the state and local governments here will probably try to stop the bus for those kids seeing as the state I live in (Georgia) is a republican controlled state and most republicans are as we all know are heartless greedy bastards.

[Historic NY]

6. Wouldn't work near me...

they gutted out the local neighborhood schools and now bus kids all over the place....why because it was some intelligentsia at the BOE who thought it would solved integration problems. My district spends more than 5.5 million + a year just for busing. At one time kids would walk to school and there were pickup spots (bus stops) for those living more than a mile from the school.

[groundloop]

7. We all know what groups that's going to hit hardest...

More 'cost cutting' by the GOP so their wealthiest won't be 'harmed'.

[caraher]

8. many Indiana public schools also have "book fees"

Our "free" public education was not quite free - the local schools charged students for books. More recently, the schools in our town have begun doing away with books entirely in favor of iPads; I no longer have kids in the schools so I don't know what fees go with that (though I'm sure the devices are from some kind of grant).

[Ed Suspicious]

10. If children are required to attend school, doesn't that then become an unfunded mandate?

[AngryOldDem]

14. I have heard that argument and I agree.

And I think that was applied in a couple of districts where schools started to cut transportation but the public outcry was too loud and buses were brought back.

If my freshman would have to walk to her school, she would be walking along a state route that is essentially a highway. She won't have to do that, but there are a lot of kids who may be put in dangerous conditions to get to school if parents can't get them there.

[cstanleytech]

17. Ya but the other side of that is if there was no school then alot of

parents would have to either stay home with the kids or hire someone to watch them both of which are impossible for alot of people.

[vkkv]

12. Welcome to the U.S. - we don' like to edumacate are kidz.

..smartz git you in trubble.

[AngryOldDem]

13. Technically, the decision is probably sound.

However, Indiana is beginning to reap the whirlwind of the cap on property taxes that was put into the state constitution a few years back. Schools are going flat broke now because of this, and they can't afford the buses. Plain and simple. This ruling gives them an excuse to the community if they decide to cut transportation to save money.

Don't blame the schools. Blame Mitch Daniels and the rest of the Indiana statehouse for putting us where we are in terms of funding for just about everything in this state.

Sadly, look for a lot of kids to become literally collateral damage because of this. Also because of a lack of funding, infrastructure is for shit here, which means bad roads, bad sidewalks, and dangerous conditions that some kids may have to travel to get to school.

A free and functional society needs taxes, folks; can't get around it, no matter what the Tea Baggers say.

[christx30]

32. Every time school bonds come up for a vote

in Austin, TX, the people here can be relied upon to vote them down. They keep closing schools all over the state. Texas's education system has been devestated in the last few years. Now they want to put ads on the side of school buses to bring in ad revenue. It's pathetic what the GOP has done to this state.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Never had the opportunity to be yellow-bussed to/from home/school

EVER. For the 12 years in public school here in Philly, even having attended schools > 1 mile, no "hop on a school bus near home and get dropped off at school". Except for 1st - 3rd grades where I could walk about 4 blocks, always had to take public transit (multiple buses or a train & walk, or a train & a bus). The School District offered subsidized or free transit tokens for low-income students, but very few public schools actually had alot of school buses to take kids to and from school.

[seabeckind]

16. Works for me. Those people picked where they want to live.

Transportation overhead is a part of the cost of living.

If they can't afford it? Move closer to where they need to be.

Half the problem with city economics is the far burby people who use city infrastructure without paying for it.

And move to an area where there is no way to have a community school cause there ain't no community. Instead some consolidated monster 12 miles away and no sidewalks for 20 miles.

Then add in the arbitrary school districting...

[LanternWaste]

26. and thus we pretend we have a valid argument.

"If they can't afford it? Move closer to where they need to be...."

Unless of course, moving closer prices the potential buyer out of the market, or any one of a thousand other valid reason why A or B may not be a viable option, all other things being equal.

We have a short-sighted vision of what other people "should" do when it's clear we lack relevant information relying instead on guesses, allegations and unsourced statements... and thus we pretend we have a valid argument.

[smirkymonkey]

35. +1000

[riderinthestorm]

31. As a farmer I'm curious if you like your fresh veggies at the local farmers market?

because that's provided by folks like me.

Rural.

So my kids' commute to school from home was 15 miles into town but you think we should stop food production and simply move?

Whose going to provide your food then?

[malthaussen]

18. My only appearance on TV

Occurred when my mother, along with others from our 'hood, was protesting that the school district didn't have a bus for the children in our area, even though there were many, and it was a long and dangerous walk to the school. TV station filmed it, and in the shot I'm walking up the stairs to the school doors. It was 1962.

Somehow, it makes me want to wear one of those tee-shirts that reads "I can't believe I'm still protesting this after all these years."

-- Mal

[Marthe48]

19. Why not put a fee on parents/students driving?

Ok, I'm 62 and always rode a bus to school when I was a kid, although the service went from driveway to a neighborhood stop, to walking to the nearest school and riding from there. Rising costs, even back then.

I've lived in Ohio my whole life, first up in Cleveland, now in Marietta. Marietta wanted to start charging kids to ride the bus, which penalizes the low-income kids and families who are trying to live green. The school expanded the parking lots twice since my daughter graduated. And the parking lots are full. I don't even want to talk about the traffic congestion right before and after school.

The buses are already paid for with tax money. They are public transportation. I feel like it would make more sense to have a parking fee for the lots, and keep the buses free for the students who ride. It would be greener-both by having fewer cars on the road, and less paving. I know it'll end up making families responsible for transportation. Of course, our whole country is set up for individual driving, so nothing is centrally located. Every family will have to drive and it is just so wasteful.

[VA_Jill]

24. My daughter

will not allow her parents to ride the school bus in her district in Tennessee because of the behavior of other children on the buses and because that behavior is not monitored or disciplined in any way. The buses are run by private contractors and most of the drivers are just there to get a paycheck. So long as the kids are not actually killing each other, the drivers don't care what else they do.

[AwakeAtLast]

25. That was what Franklin Township originally wanted to do.

It was defeated, so was a referendum, so they cancelled bus service all together.

They want transportation, but they don't want to pay for it.

This is what happens when you cap property taxes at 1%. Thanks Indiana Republicans!

[tularetom]

27. Propose to eliminate school sports and use the savings to fund the transportation program

The outcry from parents will result in the restoration of busing within a month.

[Comrade Grumpy]

30. Especially if they're gay.

[whistler162]

33. Next up Indiana

rural de-electrification.