REVENUE-GENERATING MEASURE Charge students for books, buses

Two members of the Board of Education are pressing the Public School System to consider charging students for bus ride and use of books as a way of raising revenues for the agency.

“We cannot continue complaining about this budget crisis. We have to raise our own money by being creative,” board member Anthony Pellegrino said during the BOE meeting Tuesday.

Pellegrino noted that several other government agencies are implementing their own fund-raising measures to meet their financial needs.

The Commonwealth Ports Authority, for example, has started charging a $1 parking fee at the airport. The Superior Court has stepped up its collection of fines from traffic violators.

Board member Marja Lee Taitano said she expects parents to complain about the proposed charging of fees for bus ride and book use, but that may be the only alternative for PSS to raise money.

“Of course, we want to give everybody what we can for free, but if we don’t have it, we can’t give it,” Taitano said in an interview.

In the long run, she said, the parents and students themselves would benefit from the proposed fees that would be charged by PSS.

Right now, she said, PSS cannot afford to buy instructional materials and workbooks. Instead, the students are given photocopies of these materials.

“Even that is expensive because you have to use papers and xerox machines,” Taitano said.

She suggested that PSS charge students for xerox copies.

Another proposal which Pellegrino and Taitano agreed on is to require a $10 deposit for textbooks that would be loaned to students.

“We can deposit the money in the bank and use the interests. Then, we can refund the deposit to the students when the books are returned,” Pellegrino told the board meeting.

Taitano said this will allow PSS to raise funds to purchase books and other instructional materials.

“If we can buy these books, the students will be proud of them instead of those black-and-white xerox materials that they bringing home with them,” Taitano said.

She suggested that a 25 cent fee for bus ride per student.

“The maintenance cost for buses is very expensive,” Taitano said.

PSS buses serve both private and public school students. If PSS ran out of money for bus maintenance and repair, the parents would be forced to use their own cars to drive their kids to and from school, Taitano said.

“Charging a minimum of 25 cents is much cheaper than parents running down to pick up their children,” Taitano added.

Taitano also said that requiring parents to give their share would give them a sense of ownership on the facility.

“If they feel that they partly own it, then they would do their share in taking care of it,” Taitano said.

PSS is asking for a budget of $48 million for Fiscal Year 2000. The administration, however, said it can only afford to give $38 million.

The biggest part of PSS budget goes to personnel, operations, and school repairs, and almost nothing is appropriated for textbooks and other instructional materials. (MCM)