Parent complaints about bussing took more
than one hour of today's regularly
scheduled school board meeting, the
arrest last week of a 22 year old
driver floridly Wright for brandishing
a pistol aboard a bus, brought increased
awareness to the problem.
Most parents, particularly in North
Dallas, have been complaining about late
busses, no shows and poor bus
maintenance board superintendent Lyness
Wright said. The system, which is
operated by the county as a three percent
failure rate and most of these do occur
in North Dallas.
Wright said the problem stems from a lack
of funds.
In other words, if we took care of all
the backup that we would need, like,
for example, replacing a bus every seven
years. Right now we're replacing every
12 or 13 years, which is ridiculous.
But if we replace the bus every seven
years and by then it's going to have one
hundred thousand miles on it,
then we would need at least 10 million
more just to replace busses.
Wright said it will take an additional 10
to 15 million dollars annually
to bring Dallas County School bus up
to standard.
And he and the county superintendent both
agree much of this revenue will have
to come from the legislature.
Bob Leder, Channel 5 Action
News, Dallas.