No More Free Rides At CMS?
A majority of school board members seemed receptive to a pay-to-play proposal pitched Tuesday night to save middle school sports, while discussion was curbed over applying a similar fee-based structure for transportation services.
The notion of having students pay for bus rides to and from school was floated by board member Trent Merchant, tangential to the broader discussion of pay-to-play fees for sports.
“If we’re going to say you can pay to play sports,” Merchant said, “why would we not consider some sort of system, the same type thing, a pay-to-ride system with provisions for those who can’t afford to pay?”
Superintendent Peter Gorman said that district officials, in fact, are already considering that as an option and are currently exploring what different scenarios would cost, how it would impact different schools, and whether such a pay-to-ride provision would be targeted at the whole system or select schools.
Gorman noted that he had previously been a superintendent for a school district that charged students to ride the bus.
“It can be done,” he said.
Others weren’t so sure. School board member Joe White said that charging kids to ride the bus would be tantamount to violating the law of providing every child access to a free public education.
“I think you get on pretty thin ice,” he said, “when you start talking about charging kids to ride a bus.”
Even under CMS’s proposed plan to eliminate neighborhood bus stops for magnet schools and create shuttle stops to which families would have to provide their own transportation, students would still be guaranteed a free bus ride if they chose to attend their home school instead of a magnet program, White said.
The former coach was more enthusiastic about a pay-to-play proposal that could salvage middle school sports. Gorman’s recommended budget currently includes an option that would trim $1.3 million by eliminating middle school athletic programs. Board members and staff have been scrambling for a way to prevent the budget sack.
One option presented to the board would keep all 13 athletic programs currently offered at middle schools in play, but at a cost to the players.
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