Busing, Book budget battle brewing at State House
By Matt Blanchette
@mattblanchette
At least one portion of Governor Gina Raimondo’s budget will be rejected.
The house finance committee is not playing ball with the Governor’s efforts to cut busing for private schools as well as text book sharing. In an effort to save over $2 million dollars the Governor chose to eliminate transportation for out of town students to non–public schools, but the House won’t let that happen.
Each day students leave LaSalle Academy to head home to Providence, Cranston, Bristol and other homes all over the state. For decades the state House has reimbursed individual cities and towns for busing – not only to LaSalle and catholic schools – but all non–public schools.
Now in an effort to trim $2 million dollars from her 2016 budget Governor Gina Raimondo proposed cutting that service.
But House Finance Committee Chair Ray Gallison plans to restore the funds.
“If we were going to help students with education, if we were going to help parents, this was the right thing to do. To refund, or put those monies back,” Gallison said.
The Governor, on her part, planned to use that money for other education related items like all–day kindergarten and construction enhancements on public schools.
“There were a lot of difficult decisions but we did our best,” Raimondo said. “And we did invest in public education, which is what we need if we are going to set up our kids for good jobs in this economy, they need skills and they are going to get those in great public schools.“
Gallison also points out that what many people don’t realize is that without these buses many private school kids don’t have a way to get too and from school.
“The program has been in existence for a number of years. It has helped students. It’s helped families. And a lot of families need that help,” he said.
Gallison also plans to restore text book sharing which allows private school students to get their books from the town in which they live. That costs an estimated $200,000 per year.
