Parents Attack State Plan To Charge For Busing

Lois Ahles sends her child to the private St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary.

While she is not always thrilled about it, Ahles accepts that she must pay public school taxes even though she doesn’t make use of the schools. What she doesn’t understand is a state plan to charge parents of private school children to use public school buses.

“We’re already paying taxes for those buses, and for the state to want to charge us that exorbitant amount is absurd,” Ahles said.

St. Mary’s students have ridden the Moscow School District buses for years. The buses make no extra stops, the St. Mary’s students take up otherwise empty seats on the buses and the seven buses St. Mary’s students use take a one-block detour to stop at the school.

For the 1996-97 school year, St. Mary’s agreed to pay the district $3,000 to use the buses.

Under a proposed new rule for public schools, districts must calculate the average cost of transporting students, not how much extra it costs to carry the parochial students. For St. Maries, that could mean $10,000 per year instead of the $3,000 it now pays.

St. Mary’s officials and parents have protested that change in the rules and hope that when the final draft comes out Oct. 17, it will be altered.

Jack Hill, superintendent of the Moscow School District, said the goal of the new rules is to give more control to local districts.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Anne Fox said she would look into the problem. Lawmakers have promised to help school districts who have busing agreements with private schools.

Hill and St. Mary’s Principal Sister Margaret Johnson signed a letter to the state Board of Education asking that the provision be changed.

Johnson also wants the wording changed so it doesn’t refer to private-school children as “nonstudents.” Catholic schools undergo the same accreditation process as public schools, hire accredited teachers and it is a disservice to label Catholic school students as nonstudents, Johnson said.