City school district pays to transport several students there, and to other private schools, by taxi every day. Well, think again. Because the Philadelphia School District is paying the fare or, in other words, as a taxpayer, you are. Let me put that in context. It spends more than half that to get one regular-education kid to private school by cab.
Most cabs have two or three pupils on the route.
But the district defends its decision. Required by law This absurd situation isn t entirely the doing of the district, but of an imperious state government that mandates services and refuses to pay for them. The state Legislature passed a law in 1972 requiring the district to provide the same transportation for private and parochial school students as it does for public school pupils. Now, the district is responsible for transportation to charter schools as well. So when a family decides to send an elementary or middle school kid to private school, as long as it s less than 10 miles outside the city and it doesn t make sense to send a bus they re eligible for a taxpayer-paid taxi.