Is Racial Deisolation Costing Worcester Millions in School Transportation?

Saturday, January 03, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocal Worcester Contributor

According to a report by the Worcester Research Bureau, the city of Worcester spent more than $15 million in public school transportation costs in Fiscal Year 2013. This amount represents a combination of regular bussing costs, special education bussing, mandated McKinney-Vento transportation and salaries of employees responsible for conducting bus transportation.

There are two factors that are contributing to the city's high transportation costs. The first is racial deisolation which requires that all of the Worcester schools reflect the minority-majority population of the community within 15% percent of the minority-majority ratio in Worcester. This means that if there is a school in Worcester with much more minority students than majority or much more majority students than minority than the student population of the city reflects, the city has to take steps to balance the schools populations.

“A lot of our transportation now is to bring students from one part of the city into another to create that ratio of ethnic balance. For instance if a school is 75% majority, then we bring minorities in from another part of the city to create a balance. So that’s a big transportation expense," said Worcester School Committee member Brian O'Connell.

How did Worcester get Involved with a Deisolation Plan?

Worcester Public Schools agreed to the racial deisolation plan in the early 1990s. It’s a contractual obligation to the state of Massachusetts for the approval of preferential funding for new school construction and renovation.

“It was our means of getting our schools to the top of the list for state support and having those schools funded at a very high percentage of the overall cost," said O'Connell. "We’ve benefited in a number of ways. We got a lot more schools approved that wouldn’t have been had we not had that plan in place."

At the next school committee meeting, the current demographic trends in Worcester will be addressed in terms of the racial de-isolation plan that the city must follow. According to the School Committee rules, "The School Committee shall conduct a public hearing relative to the Minority Deisolation Plan at its first meeting in December each year. At the hearing, the School Committee will review the results concerning the implementation of the plan and will make the necessary changes in an effort to maintain the correct minority/majority percent at each school. The School Committee will vote the revised plans for the schools that require changes and any other amendments necessary prior to the opening of school."

"We've certainly gotten very generous state support in key areas especially in building construction and building renovation. The state approved our plans and then put us on top of the list. That brought us multi-millions of dollars for school construction that we never would have had the opportunity to receive or spend if we had to wait our turn beneath so many other school systems around the state," said O'Connell.

Safety is a Factor

The second factor of high transportation costs is that the city transports a lot of children by the school system’s choice, as opposed to by legal requirement. The school system could choose not to transport children that live within walking distance of their schools. However, children are offered transportation for safety reasons.

"With the lack of sidewalks in Worcester, and congested and high traffic roadways in the city, we provide transportation based on safety, as opposed to legal requirements," said O'Connell. "We could eliminate a lot of transportation if we chose, and a lot of transportation at the secondary level if we chose, by law we have the right to do that, but the real concern is that if we did that, we would put the children’s safety in jeopardy, and we would end up encouraging students to drop out of school, especially at the high school level.”

What About Neighborhood Schools?

As Worcester was signing on with the state for its racial deisolation plan, the city of Boston was beginning a pilot program of more than 20 public schools. Of these schools, some of them have become "neighborhood" schools and have eliminated transportation completely. Freeing up these funds has allowed school administrators the autonomy to disperse money where they see fit and into programs that the school needs.

O’Connell said, “Perhaps we can focus on more neighborhood schools, or more innovation schools and if the determination can be made for more focus on programs to diverse within our immediate neighborhood, as opposed to an ethnic balance in schools right across the entire city, we could potentially have more varied programs in the schools, attracting students from their neighborhood, without having to bus students from one part of Worcester all the way to another. That would cut back on transportation expenses and would enable more students to walk to school.”

Is Racial Deisolation Costing Worcester Millions in School Transportation?

How did Worcester get Involved with a Deisolation Plan?

Safety is a Factor

What About Neighborhood Schools?

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