Transportation can be viewed as a tool that can help ensure school choice and educational equality. But there seems to be no common denominator in how school choice is implemented. Burns says school assignment varies district by district in her state, and school choice has many different faces.

“I’ve read every court case involving school transportation, and I can’t remember the last time I read a case where the district provided transportation to a ‘choice school’ unless it involved a student with disabilities. School districts are cutting routes and expanding walk distances all across the nation,” says Burns, a school lawyer since 1988 who shifted her focus to student transportation in 1995.

“Because we’re trying too hard across the country to keep budget cuts out of the classroom, very often transportation is one of the primary programs to fall on the chopping block,” Burns says. “I think we’re guessing on what kind of impact this will have on school attendance. I’m very concerned about this.”

In states where laws do support school choice, Burns explains, whether districts provide transportation to these schools is a matter of discretion, not a mandate, and, in most cases, they do not. Providing transportation to schools outside of the home zone is typically a case of policy, not law.

“I believe it is very difficult to talk about busing and desegregation on one hand and then talk about busing and segregation, on the other,” Burns adds. “There’s nothing to say that a school district can’t dedicate disproportionate funds to a lower performing school if needed. There are ways to improve schools other than by busing kids into them.”

Editor's note: Read more on this issue in the April 2010 edition of School Transportation News magazine.