The cost of transporting charter school students to class in Ohio was, on average, about 44 percent higher than for students attending regular public schools, an investigation by the Akron Beacon Journal shows.
In part, the extra cost comes from having to bus charter students longer distances, sometimes with fewer of them on the route. Statewide, school buses traveled an extra 15,600 miles every day in 2012 to accommodate charter school students, which adds up to about an additional $85,000 every day. That extra cost is largely footed by the urban districts in which most charters operate, says the newspaper.
State funding for school transportation, which in the past varied from $9 million to $33 million a year, was zeroed out in 2010.
