As I said in Tuesday’s commentary, the comprehensive audit of West Virginia’s public school system contains a wealth of insights about the way we deliver education. The review by Public Works, an independent consultant, found ways the state can save millions of dollars just through efficiencies.
You can read the full report here.
For example, the audit took a hard look at the school transportation system and found that West Virginia does not use the best available technology to save money.
West Virginia spent $239 million in the 2009-2010 school year on student transportation. Most of that (69 percent) was for salaries and benefits, but $35 million was for fuel. The audit showed that our state’s school transportation costs run about 10 percent higher than the national average per pupil.
Yes, the state’s mountainous terrain raises the costs, but the audit found that there are ways the state could find significant savings in school transportation.
According to the report, most counties simply plan bus routes manually instead of utilizing computerized routing technology. Seven of the nine counties that use bus routing technology have lower transportation costs than comparable counties that still plan bus trips by hand.
Public Works said, “Bus routing technology can save transportation costs by computing the shortest routes to reduce equipment, fuel and driver expenses. The technology also reduces the number of administrative staff needed to produce the routes, answer routing questions and eliminates the need to maintain paper files.”
True, the state would have to buy and maintain the bus routing technology, but once in place, it could save West Virginia between $2.1 and $3.5 million over five years.
Additionally, the audit found that West Virginia may be overpaying for what are called mid-day trips by bus drivers. 35 counties pay extra to bus drivers for these mid-day trips even though they fall during the normal work day.
The report cited Harrison County as an example, where bus drivers needed another 30 minutes to one hour for the midday trip, but received two hours of extra compensation.
“On average, bus drivers doing the additional mid-day runs are working six to seven hours daily and being compensated for eight to 13 hours,” the report said.
The audit projects that eliminating the extra pay for these mid-day bus runs could save the state $4.4 million over five years.
Again, I’m just scratching the surface of this audit. It’s evident that West Virginia is burning through millions of dollars every year in public education that could be directed to the classroom.
The West Virginia Legislature begins its regular session today. Lawmakers have before them overwhelming evidence concerning ways to improve public education. Let’s see what they do with it.