9. Does the method of computing aid for pupil transportation provide for subsistence for pupils in lieu of transportation within reasonable limitations?

10. Does the plan of financing pupil transportation tend to stimulate desirable reorganization of local units and attendance areas rather than to preserve the status quo?

11. Does the plan of financing pupil transportation provide for distribution of aid upon the basis of an objective formula?

FINDINGS

Replies, varying greatly in the degree to which the requests and questions were answered, were received from 44 State departments of education. Six reported no State plans and consequently gave practically no information or evaluation. This section deals with the factual data obtained from the three sources mentioned in the preceding section.

From information on the replies to the questionnaire and from provisions of State laws, it appears that the use of State government funds is authorized in at least 25 States for the purpose of helping with the expense of pupil transportation and that specific directions for computing the distribution of such funds are written in the law of each of these 25 States or have been prepared by the State board of education. In some, but not in all of these 25 States, pupil transportation expense is considered a part of the cost of the school program the cost of which is to be equalized or guaranteed by the State.

In 11 States, the law provides that pupil transportation expense may be included in the school program the cost of which the State specifically guarantees or otherwise assists in meeting. In some of these. for purposes of computing the cost of the school program, pupil transportation expense is limited in some way, or a specified amount, which may be used for it, is stated in the law. In some of the others, pupil transportation is merely mentioned as an item of expense in the program. For illustration, in determining whether or not a school district is entitled to equalization aid in the State of Arkansas, $13 is included in the cost of the district's program for each pupil in average daily attendance who resides more than 2 miles from school and who is transported to school at public expense and in making such determination in the State of Maryland, the entire cost of approved elementary school transportation and at least half the cost of approved highschool transportation are included.

In the remaining 12 States, there is no specific provision for the use of State Government funds for assisting local school districts with their pupil transportation expense. In some cases, however, the funds provided by the State Government are for general current school expenses and may therefore be used in part for pupil transportation expense.

Table 1.-Methods of distributing State aid for pupil transportation expense in 36 States1

States in which a definite method or formula is used and in which transportation may or may not be a part of the program to be equalized 2

States in which the expense of this service is merely included when computing the cost of the school program to be equalized or guaranteed by the State 2

Arkansas

Delaware

Indiana
Maryland
Mississippi

New Hampshire
New Mexico
South Dakota

Texas

Utah

Vermont

APPORTIONING STATE AID FOR PUPIL TRANSPORTATION

State funds which are provided for pupil transportation are apportioned to counties or school districts in various ways. Some of the methods or formulas used in determining the amount of such funds to which a school district or county is entitled for the expense of pupil transportation are complicated; others are simple. The following examples illustrate variations in such methods:

I. Alabama State Regulations. (As authorized by Title 52, sec. 209 of the 1940 school law.) Calculation of the monthly transportation allowances. The monthly minimum program allotment for transportation shall be calculated for any county or city board of education by multiplying the allowable aggregate attendance of transported pupils for one month by the transportation cost per pupil per day allotted to that county as hereinafter determined.

(1) Calculation of the aggregate daily attendance of transported pupils
to be included in the minimum program.

(a) The aggregate daily attendance of transported pupils per month
to be included in the minimum program calculations shall in-
clude only the aggregate attendance of elementary children who
live 2 miles or more from an elementary school center and the
aggregate daily attendance of high-school children who live 2
miles or more from a high-school center; provided, however,
that the aggregate daily attendance of physically handicapped
pupils living any distance from school may be included.
(b) The State department of education shall have authority to ex-
clude the aggregate attendance of children transported to school
centers, which centers are unapproved by surveys conducted
by the State department of education.

The 1945 session of the Iowa Legistlature has provided for State funds for pupil transportation, details of which are not yet available.

2 The distinction indicated by the column headings is not absolute in every case, but at least there are fewer factors involved in measuring the need for funds in the States named under the second heading.

(c) The State superintendent of education shall have the authority to exclude the aggregate attendance of children transported on dangerous vehicles.

(d) If a survey shows that the reported number of children transported in a school system exceeds the number of children living 2 miles or more from school centers approved by survey, the State superintendent of education shall have the authority to reduce proportionately the aggregate attendance of transported pupils reported by that school system to the transportation saturation point as determined by survey.

(e) The aggregate attendance of transported pupils allotted in the minimum program for any year shall be based upon reports of transported pupils for the previous year, subject to the provisions of these regulations.

(2) The cost per pupil per day allotted for transported pupils shall be determined as follows:

(a) Determine the cost per pupil per day of transported pupils in each school system for 1938-39.

(b) Calculate the density of white children transported per square mile.

(c) Group the counties in a minimum of 11 density groups and calculate the average cost per pupil per day of transportation in each density group.

(d) Using the average cost per pupil per day as the ordinate and the density of transported pupils as the abscissa, plot the average cost per pupil per day in each density group. Fit a curve to the average group costs and determine the allowable cost per pupil per day for counties in each density group from the curve of best fit.

(3) The monthly minimum program transportation allowance shall be determined as follows:

(a) Multiply the aggregate attendance of transported pupils as determined in item 1 above by the allowable cost per pupil per day as determined in item 2 above.

(b) If a county board of education in 1940-41 reduces by consolidation the number of white teachers employed in that year below the number allotted to that county school system and employed in 1939-40, the transportation allotment to that school system shall be increased by $80 per month for each teacher so eliminated.

II. Virginia Appropriation Act for the biennium 1944-1946, Item 93A. For aiding the counties and cities in the cost of transporting pupils to and from the public schools.

It is provided that $500,000 for each year of the biennium shall be paid by the State Board of Education to the counties and cities of the State as an aid to the counties and cities in the cost of transporting pupils to and from the public schools; $250,000 of such sum to be prorated, and paid to the counties and cities in the proportion that the total sum of miles traveled by the school busses while transporting pupils to and from schools at public expense in each such county or city during the preceding year bears to the total number of miles so traveled during such year in the State as a whole; and the remaining $250,000 of such total ap

propriation shall be prorated and paid to the said counties and cities, respectively, in the proportion that the total number of school busses operated at public expense in each such county or city during the preceding year bears to the total number of school busses so operated for such year in the State as a whole.

III. Wyoming. Government Royalty Fund, [This fund consists of all moneys paid the State by the United States Government according to terms of the Act of Congress (P. L. No. 146) of February 25, 1920, which law provides for the allotting of 37% percent of the receipts from mineral leases and royalties derived from lands on the public domain to the respective States within which such receipts originate] and its distribution. School Laws of the State of Wyoming 1937, sec. 268 (d).

Fifty per centum of such funds shall be distributed . . . upon the basis of the number of teachers and drivers of trucks or vehicles used for the transportation of school children in consolidated school districts employed during the preceding years as follows: . . . and the number of drivers of trucks or vehicles used for the transportation of school children; provided that no driver shall be counted who does not transport, daily when school is in session, an average of at least eight children over a route the total length of which in carrying children to school and returning them to their homes, is not less than eight miles; not more than one driver to be counted for any one truck or vehicle, and no driver to be counted who transports his own and no other children.

Table 2.-Amount of State funds for pupil transportation expense, 1942-43, in 15 States

In those States wherein the county is the sole, or the principal, unit for school administration, the county, rather than the small local school district, is, of course, the principal unit for raising any revenue needed by the schools-including that for pupil transportation-which is not supplied by the State Government. There are other States in which the county serves as an intermediate unit and in some cases raises funds for distribution to local school districts. In at least 7 States in which counties are divided into local school districts, funds are or may be raised on a county-wide basis for apportionment to local school districts for all or a part of the expense of pupil transportation within such districts.

An interesting illustration of a plan which provides for the sharing of pupil transportation expense by the State, the counties, and the local

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school districts is the one used in the State of Montana. According to this plan, the State Government provides up to one-third of the funds needed for the approved pupil transportation expense; each county supplies another third of such funds; and the remainder is provided locally. For details of the Montana plan see the section which follows on individual State plans.

In the States of Arizona and Georgia the major part of pupil transportation expense is paid from county funds. However, from data at hand, it is not possible to report the exact share, which is paid by funds raised by the counties in either of these States. The reason for this is that State funds distributed to counties for local school districts are in many cases placed with funds raised by the respective counties for distribution to their local school districts, hence the county funds may be composed of State and county funds.

The amount of funds from counties, as intermediate units, appears to be small in at least some States. Replying to the request on the questionnaire for the amount of county school funds distributed to local school districts, independent of the county, in the State of Alabama for the year 1942-43, it was reported that a total of only $8,035 was so distributed to independent city school districts that year. This amount is small in comparison with a total of $2,538,563 in State funds for pupil transportation expense in the State that year.

LOCAL FUNDS FOR PUPIL TRANSPORTATION

As with the funds for other current school expense and capital outlays, those for pupil transportation are provided in part in the majority of States by local school districts. The various provisions are included in the section which follows.

LEGAL PROVISIONS FOR PAYING FOR PUPIL

TRANSPORTATION, BY STATE

This section contains a summary statement for each State to show what responsibilities have been placed upon the State Government, upon the counties, and upon the local school districts or what authority these units of government have regarding provisions for pupil transportation service at public expense and for meeting such expense. For the convenience of the reader who is interested in investigating such provisions in detail, legal citations are included.

In a number of States, the county has little or no part in providing pupil transportation service or in providing funds for the support of such service. This fact is so indicated by the phrase "None provided." Similarly, in a few States, the same phrase is used to indicate little or no local school district responsibility or aid for pupil transportation.