Ruling OKing School Bus Fees Might Not Apply to California

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that local governments may charge parents to bus their children to school may not apply in California, where an appellate court has held that such charges are not permissible under state law.

On May 10, a state Court of Appeal in Ventura County ruled that the state Constitution does not allow school districts to charge the bus service fees. That decision affects 68 school districts in both rural and urban areas of the state that now charge such fees.

Those 68 financially strapped school districts may choose to drop home-to-school bus service if they cannot charge fees to defray the cost, state officials said Friday.

And, in fact, Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling noted that local school districts are not obligated under the federal Constitution to provide bus service.

Although the state Department of Education is appealing the May 10 lower court decision, “the whole bus fee situation is now in limbo,” said Taylor Carey, a lawyer for the department. “The (state) Supreme Court probably won’t have a decision on this appeal until sometime this fall.”

Carey said that nothing in state law requires school districts to provide bus services.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Friday involved a North Dakota case challenging the constitutionality of charging parents a fee for school bus service. The high court upheld the right of school districts to charge such fees.

But the 2nd District Court of Appeal’s May 10 ruling on a case involving the Fillmore Unified School District in Ventura County struck down school bus fees in California.

The appellate court said that the fees violate the state Constitution’s guarantee of free education. If that ruling is upheld by the California Supreme Court, bus fees would be banned, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.

State education officials said they are worried that Friday’s high court decision gives the green light to any school district seeking to abandon bus service.

The California Legislature, acting in the wake of property-tax-cutting Proposition 13 in 1978, enacted several laws to try to bail out school districts. One such law, Carey said, permits school districts to charge a fee for home-to-school bus services.

The Los Angeles Unified School District opted to drop bus service in the early 1980s, “because we just couldn’t afford it any more and the school board found parents in opposition to charging fees,” Marty Estrin, a spokesman for the district, said. He said that the only buses now used are for special education and integration and that no fee is charged.

In Orange County, six school districts--Saddleback Valley Unified, Irvine Unified, Newport-Mesa Unified, Orange Unified, Los Alamitos Unified and Fullerton Joint Union High School District--charge bus fees, according to the Orange County Department of Education. Thirteen school districts in San Diego County charge bus fees, including the Poway Unified School District, which reported that it could lose up to $325,000 in fees a year if the May 10 Court of Appeal decision is not overturned.