I've home schooled all my kids. Lost confidence in the public system years ago. Still had to pay school taxes. Kids turned out a lot better. Here's my take; There are four professions in this world where you don't have to do your job, but you will still draw your paycheck. Doctors. They never have to get anyone well but they will still get paid. Lawyers. They never have to win a case but they still get paid. Auto Mechanic. They never have to fix a car but they still get paid. Teachers. They never have to teach anyone but they still get paid. Ninetynine percent of teachers are only purveyors of information. Anyone can do that. It takes someone special to actually teach a child. Why arent teachers paid according to their students pass/ fail ratio?

My bus goes Bling Bling Bling. Ride my bus. My bus is gonna drive your bus straight to the poor house.

Well if the federal goverment stops giving money to all these foriegn countries and waging wars that wont make a difference 1o years from now .They could fund the US schools districts no problems and start taking care of America and let the rest of the world take care of themselves.We need to take a good hard look at the crooks in washington that dont care about working class people and kick them all out.We need to start making things in the USA and not China.

For everyone out there wondering why all kids simply don't walk to school, does that include walking across an entire county? And there may not be a school closer than the one twenty to thirty miles away.

If the Federal, Sate, & Local governments would stop ending welfare for the poor and end the welfare for the rich, we could balance the Federal, State, & Local budgets in 1 year. This is awful that we give to the rich corporations and strapped parents now have to pay for their kids to ride the bus. Glad I don't have kids and that I am out of school.

Only government ran school systems are doing this. That bus gets the same gas mileage full or empty and the driver is paid the same full or empty. Meanwhile, hundreds of cars, vans and suv's line up around the school to pick up or drop of their precious little cargo that are TOO GOOD to good to ride the bus. CHARGE THE CAR RIDERS FOR NOT USING THE PROVIDED TRANSPORTATION THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN BUDGETED. The school has 1000 students. They budget to bus 1000 students. Only 600 ride the bus daily? Too late. The buses, drivers and fuel have been paid for.

Old news. Live in IL and our kids already have to pay to ride. Of course the only people who ride are the low in come kids and they get it free anyway.

What it amounts to. Is that the schools can not justify the high salaries that are paid. So we will use the TAX DOLLARS for pay raises and use the excuse that "We are broke syndrome", and get the tax payers to pay more in the way of transportation tax fees. If I recall isn't Illinois a union State? You might want to look a your Union dues.

Hrm. I'm sorry I haven't the time to read all 90 posts (at the time) so perhaps my questions are answered ... but don't we already pay taxes that include this as a service for our children? If our taxes DO pay for the buses now, then such a change should mean that any savings incurred by going to a pay-to-ride system will be passed down to the tax payer. If not, then what the heck!? I do see an issue with public transit, however, some places are just too remote for that to be feasible and aren't covered by public transit routes - especially in Texas where many have to drive everywhere long distances to anything. I am thankful for the City.

As a society we have to decide where to allocate resources. Since the New Deal legislation, which originally provided a necessary basic safety net, we have allocated an ever increasing percentage of our taxes to entitlements and paying for things for grown abled bodied adults should be paying for on their own, while at the same time demanding no accountability. Obamacare is just another manifestation of this trend.

Unfortunately, because we have chosen to pay to essentially warehouse folks, who never contribute anything to society or pay what was given to them, it leaves less and less money for investments in society that would pay dividends, such as education, infrastructure, visionary projects along the lines of Hoover dam, TVA, the moon landings and all the technical innovations that generated. Those days are gone. There is no money for these things.

Not only that, but we are saddled with obligations that we simply cannot afford, from underfunded government worker pensions (where taxpayers are on the hook if investments don't perform ... Yet no one helps us in the private sector if our 401k gets hammered by the market) and a social security and Medicare system facing insolvency. We have in six Americans on Medicaid and 35% of households receiving some form of welfare. And now we just had to add obamacare, just a few years after Bush created a prescription drug plan for seniors.

It's nice to help people, but its just not sustainable and it's ever increasing. Many people also have no shame anymore. They just expect all these things to be handed to them.

It's just pure lunacy. Pretty soon we as taxpayers are going to have to pay if the police have to respond if someone breaks into our house, yet obliviots will still get their entitlements merely because they exist.

It's not FREE now to ride school bus...my tax dollars pay for busses!

On another note, we need to quit complaining about taxes. If you don't want to pay taxes, go to Mexico. Then you and your neighbors can fix your own roads and build your own schools. See how that works out for you. If your neighbors are broke, your roads are gonna be broke. I know plenty of people like myself who put themselves through college and worked full-time and two jobs and don't complain about their taxes. If you want more money, then maybe you need to work harder...

WHAT is next.. Pay Toilets !

Isn't the Obama economy wonderful?

This sounds like a pratical idea/solution but there are also going to be drawbacks. For example, the article states Illinois has 2.1 million students, if each student is charged $100 that's $210 million in the Ill budget. I just don't trust them with that much money. In no time the politicians will be financing something else with that money and the cost will go up. There's also the possiblility that lower income families will be exempt from paying and sticking the bill on the rest of us. I could also see that money going to student breakfasts, lunches and dinners that are now served in some districts...but I admit it's still a good idea in theory.

Are you people stupid? First, those that need a ride to school should pay, what do you think part of the school taxes that I have been paying has gone for the last 20 years? Transportation is part of it. Then because of the road our school is on, it is against the law for the kids to walk to school. You Democrats get sucked in every time by the Govt. They start the bus program years ago and say it will cost "This much", against most peoples wishes, but it gets forced in anyway. Then other programs start like serving breakfast and dinner to kids that can't afford to eat at home even though their parents are on foodstamps in the first place. Then teachers get paid pensions for up to 30 years after they don't work anymore, even though they complain about their poor salary. Then the Govt. causes insurance and gas prices to be sooo high that it makes transporting students an outrageous amount of money. Then 50 years later, the school comes out and says that kids should have to pay to ride the bus, even though they already have been. Let your kid walk to school 1 mile in 25 degree weather now and you will be arrested for child abuse. so more parents will start dropping their kids off at school raising the amount of CO2 emissions and wasting more energy that the school has been brainwashed into teaching in the first place.

I have an idea, how about charging teachers rent for the space that they occupy when they aren't teaching? After all, MY TAXES have paid for that room anbd now you are using it for free?

Looks like an outside party needs to audit the books, so where are the school taxes going? I used and paid for public transportation while in high school, but they had the money to bus the trash in from across the other side of city. Bet the teachers and administrators got a raise in the last 3 years though.

The article starts out even saying that the Free ride may be over. If it's free, then just keep it that way.

Of course they should pay. It would release the tax dollars for something else within the school district. Besides think of all the people that have NO children that are paying for education for all those that do have children via their taxes. Do you think that's fair? The people on here bemoaning the teachers are obviously in a different profession. I don't care how much teachers get paid, frankly whatever it is it is probably not enough in my book. These days, it must seem like a thankless task to many teachers, who get nothing but abuse from both students and parents. Parents can't believe their "darling children" would ever do/say anything bad to a teacher/policeman etc and are quick to defend their little angels. It would appear we want to blame everybody else for the misgivings of our kids instead of pointing the finger inwards.

The more exercise kids get these days is a good thing considering the amount of time they spend in front of TV/computers/banished to their rooms out of the parents way simply because you can't be bothered or you have had a hard day. Teachers overpaid??? I think not. They listen to your kids day in and day out because it is the only adult interaction they get. Sad really when you think about it! Oh BTW I am not a teacher and I have put four children through school where I paid for them to ride the bus or they walked. If I got a letter from school it was usually justified and punishment was administered for the severity of the "crime". I am proud to say all four of them are working and all have a very healthy respect for authority. Might have been different if I had jumped all over the teacher because My child never would do anything wrong

.

Illinois has state income tax, state sales tax and extensive toll roads that were supposed to have the tolls removed back in the 1970s, but remain because the corrupt officials need more tax revenue to line their pockets. Now kids are being charged to ride the bus. Illinois needs a clean wipe of the slate. Get rid of every single state government position and install a slimmed down version using new people none of which are even related with current officials.

If schools where not closing schools instead of their achievement gaps and students would not have to travel for miles to get to large under-performing schools I may support this. Schools are over-funded and miss-managed. Students are often treated as an afterthought and not given the chance to learn and be productive and contribute the the system that has written them off.

The money is going to lawyers and oocupant of the ambulance they chased. I read an article the other day about a woman who got $25,000,000 from a police department because her husband was accidentally killed in a high speed chase. Why should the police department which is tax payer funded cover this instead of the criminal they were chasing? There are thousands of cases like this every year, billions of tax dollars being paid out in settlements to private citizens for mistakes made by individuals at government organizations. Children and the elderly are the ones that ultimately pay for these settlements as their programs are cut to cover the losses while some lawyer and his Client get rich.

I would be happy to pay a fee for my child to have a school bus ride. My childrens district does not have school buses any longer so all children have to walk or have their own transportation. My 4th graders school is 3/4 of a mile from our home and my 8th grader is 1.5 miles away. Grandma drives them currently but I would love to be offered the ability to pay for a bus ride. I would lovingly pay! It is really hard for working parents to be able to make sure their children get home safely. I am not worried about the length of the walking but of their safety when walking. It scares me when grandma can't pick them up. The peace of mind the bus ride would bring is worth it!

As a child in Marin county CA, I paid to ride the Greyhound to school. No school buses there. When I had my own children in the Cupertino School district in Cupertino CA, I paid for my children to take a bus or arranged car pools for them. 'Free' school buses are a convenience, but a luxury we cannot longer.

If I'm not mistaken we already pay for things like this with our tax dollars!