Plan could trim state budget by $1.2 million; transporters fear safety is at stake

LANSING, Mich. (May 2005) - School bus operators are crying foul over a plan they say would effectively terminate the state's mandate on vehicle inspections by shifting the cost of providing any annual and as-needed vehicle inspections to the fleets themselves.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm in March proposed to eliminate a statute that requires state-funded school bus inspections performed by the Michigan State Police to trim the state's ballooning budget by over $1.2 million for fiscal year 2006. Michigan is currently running a deficit of about $770 million.

Current state law requires the state police to inspect all new school buses prior to school district delivery and to inspect all others annually, or as needed if defects are discovered. Granholm's plan, articulated under Senate Bill 280 that appropriates funding to the state police, would shift the inspection responsibility to local school districts or private school bus fleet owners.

Greg Bird, a spokesman from the office of the state budget, said it currently costs the state about $1.2 million a year to offer the inspections to schools. Eliminating the statute would not eliminate the need for inspections, however. The proposed budget would have to pass, as would separate legislation eliminating the annual inspection requirement, in order for the cut to happen. He added that the state police will continue to inspect buses but for an undetermined fee, payable by "whomever the bus owner is, whether that is the school district or some other entity."

However, Mac Dashney, former transportation director for the Lansing School District and former pupil transportation consultant to the Michigan Department of Education, said the $1.2 million dollar figure reflects the overall school bus inspection budget. In actuality, he said, the state spends about $700,000 to $800,000 annually to have the state police inspect buses. According to him, the cuts are based more on political leverage then anything else. He said Gov. Granholm scuttled the original plan to eliminate 90 patrol positions in favor of restructuring the state's school bus inspection program.

"Everybody is a little concerned that she is playing politics with a whole bunch of kids' safety. That's a hard call to make," he said.

Reactions

The state police refused comment on the bill except to confirm that the annual school bus inspection bill to the state normally comes in under the $1 million mark. Louis Burgess, supervisor of grant coordination at the Department of Education, said the state remains focused on keeping Michigan's school bus safety record intact no matter the bill's outcome.

The Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation, which opposes the proposal, reports that the state police school bus inspection unit combs over 18,000 school buses annually. The state transports 860,000 students each day on morning and afternoon routes over 167 million miles, equating to an estimated 325 million student rides annually.

"The problem becomes the districts with a lesser or poor rating, who wait for the State Police inspectors to tell them what is wrong with their buses and then fix them accordingly," said Jeanne Asch, MAPT president and manager of transportation services for the Birmingham Public Schools. "Those districts will 'applaud' no more state police inspections, and their poor safety ratings and poor (or lack of) maintenance programs will also continue."

Pupil transporters ask where they are to come up with thousands of additional dollars each year to pay for the 198-point inspection when they, too, are facing overwhelming budget constraints.

"I'd have to come up with another $6,000 in a budget that is already shot," said Nathan Rowen, current director of transportation services with the Lansing School District. "It's a rigorous inspection, but supervisors don't want to see it leave because we know our buses our safe."

A fine print stipulation of Gov. Granholm's proposal also calls for a change to two state laws that would allow third-party vehicle inspectors to compete with the state police and would allow school districts to consolidate services, such as transportation and maintenance. Rowen said schools fear that lower standards for safety and maintenance and levels of service could result, since the state police has enforcement powers over school buses that could never be passed along to private companies offering the same services.

"No one's convinced me (that a new inspection criteria would be safer) and I used to be a CDL examiner," Rowen said. "If (some) other districts and other contractors are given the ability to cheat, they will cheat."

Contingency Plan

A brain trust of pupil transportation advisors - consisting of state police and transportation officials, parents, school district and Head Start transporters, and insurance groups - hatched a contingency plan that would model a new inspection process based on the federal government's random drug and alcohol testing procedures for commercial drivers. Headed by Dashney, the Pupil Transportation Advisory Committee's "Maintenance Systemwide Audit" program promotes the inspection of a sampling of all school bus fleets that represents the majority of buses in use, regardless of age or type. It would set forth a list of school bus inspection tasks from the Michigan Model School Bus Maintenance Program, which was developed in the Detroit Public Schools. In comparison, the Governor's plan would enable school districts to perform their own maintenance inspections using their own mechanics or solicit a third-party private inspector, in addition to contracting with the state police, possibilities Dashney sees as setting a potentially fatal precedence.

"That would last until the first child was injured or a school bus was involved in a crash and was found to be at fault because the brakes didn't work or the mirrors weren't adjusted," said Dashney, who also runs Pupil Transportation Operation & Management Information, a Lansing-based private consultancy. "The Governor's view here is misguided, to say the least, and very ignorant of what the parents of 800,000 kids who ride the school bus everyday think they're getting. They understand these vehicles are the safest vehicles to put their kids in."



This article reprinted from the May 2005 edition of School Transportation News.
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