School districts drop bus routes on fuel costs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As parents usher their children back to school this fall, they may have one more challenge to deal with: how to get their kids to school.

School districts around the country are cutting back on school bus routes and asking students to walk farther to bus stops as the average diesel price races toward $5 per gallon.

"Fuel conservation methods have been exploited already. It's gotten to the point where hard choices have to be made," said Robin Leeds, spokeswoman for the National School Transportation Association.

School transportation budgets have ballooned as diesel prices, the primary fuel used for school buses, have shot up nearly 65 percent in the last year, with the U.S. average topping $4.80 per gallon.

In California, soaring diesel prices will mean that high school students at Folsom-Cordova Unified School District will head to school by bike, on foot or in private cars as the district eliminates all its high school bus routes.

"With our economy in the tank the way it is, having gas prices increase ... it just adds fuel to the fire," said Debbie Bettencourt, deputy superintendent at Folsom-Cordova.

Fleets of school buses that wolf down fuel, averaging six to eight miles per gallon, are also forcing schools to cut back on field trips and other extracurricular activities like music and sports.

"Everybody is looking at significant changing of service delivery," said Mike Martin, executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation.

"Their reaction is kind of 'shock and awe,' and I don't mean it in a good way."

Indeed, cost increases for some districts have been eye-popping. For instance, for every penny increase in fuel price, the annual additional cost to Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland is $33,000.

"What we are seeing is school boards taking whatever steps they can ... to avoid more draconian measures like cuts to instructional programs and laying off teachers," said Mark Egan, director of federal affairs for the National School Boards Association.

But exorbitant fuel prices have hacked into educational costs, even in districts where bus routes have been cut.

"We didn't get an increase in educational budgets this year because all the money is going to fuel," said Michael Coughlin, the chief financial officer for the Waterloo Community School District in Iowa, where three to five routes are likely to be dropped this year.

Despite canceled bus routes, Coughlin said, he had to add $200,000 to the Waterloo fuel budget.

With no end to high fuel prices in sight, some schools are looking into new technologies like hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles and systems to eliminate unnecessary idling.

But those looking at conservation face an additional hurdle: "That takes money. We have to save enough in fuel to pay for the system," said Bettencourt, referring to a GPS system that would detect excessive idling.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)