School bus routes: Review and cancellations have rural groups concerned

Federated Farmers is trying to save more rural routes from being scrapped. Photo / RNZ, John Gerritsen

By Sally Murphy of RNZ

Rural groups are raising the alarm over the review and cancellation of school bus routes.

The Ministry of Education said it regularly reviewed routes to ensure they were operating within policy requirements and meeting patronage targets.

So far this year 176 routes have been or are being reviewed - 21 routes have been terminated while 11 have been replaced with different routes or combined with others.

Ministry group manager of school transport James Meffan said the primary responsibility for transporting children to and from school rests with their caregivers, however, the ministry may be able to help where distance or accessibility may be a barrier for students.

To be eligible to receive ministry-funded school transport assistance there must be eight or more students using the bus, students must attend their local state or state-integrated school and they must live within a certain distance from the school.

Federated Farmers is trying to save more rural routes from being scrapped, coming up with a list of solutions it has sent to the Government.

Rural education spokesman Toby Williams said they had been hearing from members who were really concerned about cuts.

Williams said the Government needed to immediately review eligibility criteria.

“For example, at the moment, you need to have a minimum of eight children catching the bus from an area for it to carry on running, but we think that should be lowered to four.

“That would keep more bus routes viable and better reflect the realities of rural New Zealand, where we do have smaller communities than in the past.”

Williams also suggested Education Minister Erica Stanford and Transport Minister Simeon Brown jointly instruct their officials to look at integrating their respective transport fleets.

“This could create a multi-use public/private system, where bus routes serve both schoolchildren and provide daily transport to town for rural people.”

A lot of rural families would be willing to pay a small fee to keep school bus services in place - rather than losing them altogether, Williams said.

“At the end of the day, if mum and dad are looking at an hour-long return drive to school twice a day, versus paying a few bucks for the bus, it’s an easy decision.”

Rural Women New Zealand president Gill Naylor agreed the criteria needed to be reviewed.

She said some parents were having to drive an hour one way to take their children to school.

“In some areas, these cuts are proving absolutely devastating for the communities, it means some people are seriously considering selling their properties and moving closer to town or into town so their children can access education.

The flow-on effects from current policy settings were massive, she said.

“In rural areas, there’s no public transport options, there’s no footpaths or cycleways, our roads are not safe for kids to be biking to school.

“There’s a whole raft of issues, and not all parents in rural communities are self-employed.

“They can’t take an hour off in the morning or change around their day to take kids to school.”

- RNZ