Two local state representatives have proposed legislation that would lower school transportation costs for geographically large towns in Massachusetts, including Plymouth, which at 104 square miles is the state’s biggest geographically.
The bill aims to establish the Extraordinary Routes Relief Fund for non-regional school districts facing high transportation costs. It’s being championed by Rep. Michelle Badger, D-Plymouth, and Kathy LaNatra, D-Kingston.
A regional school district involves two or more municipalities and is considered a separate and independent unit of local government. For these systems, the commonwealth provides transportation reimbursement for students who live farther than 1.5 miles away — money set aside in the budget for reimbursement.
But Plymouth, as a stand-alone district, does not qualify for that help.
“We’re bigger than a lot of regional school districts,” Badger said. “It didn’t seem equitable or fair to me that Plymouth, being as large as it is, isn’t getting additional funding from the state.”
Plymouth school buses travel more than 851,000 miles a year, said Superintendent Chris Campbell.
This year, Plymouth Public Schools spent nearly $11 million on transportation funds. The system spends 125 percent of the state average, along with 32 other communities in Massachusetts, Campbell said.
The legislation is modeled after the circuit breaker program to offset the costs of special education services. When fully funded, that program can reimburse school districts for 75 percent of expenses that exceed the annual per-student threshold.
“When I took a different approach with the circuit breaker idea, we found that 10 percent of communities across the Commonwealth and geographically spread out across the map could benefit from something like this,” Campbell said. “I’m hopeful that this idea, because it’s more inclusive across the Commonwealth, could get some traction.”
The fund would rely on money from “public and private sources” by way of grants and donations, according to the bill. Non-regional school districts like Plymouth could apply for a grant reimbursement for costs such as “the purchase and maintenance of buses, fuel costs and driver salaries.”
Currently, Plymouth Public Schools has a contract with First Student — one of the largest transportation companies in the country. It operates 65 buses and covers 4,729 miles in a school day, Campbell said.
Though the district has been in the same contract since 2019, other towns across the state are seeing a significant price increase.
Dartmouth — the fifth largest geographic town in Massachusetts — was hit with a 26 percent price increase in its public school transportation contract this year, reported Dartmouth Week Today.
Through sixth grade, Plymouth students who live two or more miles from their assigned school are provided free transportation, while students living closer to the designated distance or are in middle or high school must pay a fee to ride a bus, regardless of their proximity to school.
This year, the fee was $150 per student with a $450 family cap, according to the school system’s website.
LaNatra said the cost of transporting students to and from school has skyrocketed recently, with many districts “being forced to make impossible choices just to keep up.”
“For large towns like Plymouth that don’t qualify for regional transportation aid, the burden is even greater,” LaNatra said in a statement.
Badger said the formula called for in the legislation would make reimbursement sustainable, given municipalities can’t predict their transportation budgets.
Badger – a former Plymouth School Committee member – hopes the proposed budget relief will allow Plymouth to be a place for residents to “live, work and play in.”
“Some people might say I’m a little dramatic when it comes to school transportation,” she said. “But I believe that transportation is going to cripple our districts and our towns if we don’t get a handle on it.”
Payton Renegar, a Boston University student, is part of the school’s Statehouse Program.