School Choice Program in Florida Leads to More Miles on School Bus, More Accidents

Posted on Mar 18, 2008

The Naples (Fla.) News decided to examine why the Florida Department of Education (FDE) found the Lee school district had the second-highest number of accidents involving a bus – 109 -- of any school district in the state. Orange County led the way with 118 bus accidents during the 2006-07 school year.

The answer may be a simple one.

In the Lee school district, there is a school choice program, one of only three in the state. It allows students who live outside geographic school boundaries to attend classes in Lee district. Thus, many of Lee’s students spend more time on buses than students in other Florida school districts.

In Lee, 700 school buses travel 75,000 miles a day or 13.5 million miles annually, the Naples News reported. School buses in Broward County -- which has three times the students than Lee -- travel a similar number of miles.

This arrangement makes Lee’s per-student transportation cost one of the most expensive in the state, said the FDE. Lee spends $200 more per student than the average Florida school district student, according to the FDE.

Lee School District Communications Director Joe Donzelli said just because his district’s buses travel more miles, that doesn’t mean the ride is unsafe. “When you look at the overall safety record of buses getting to and from school, yes there may be more incidents, but what kind of incidents are they?” He went on to say that some accidents involve buses clipping mirrors or being rear-ended. Of the 109 accidents listed in the state accident report, the point of impact for 38 was on the rear-end side, according to the FDE.