The Most Expensive School Bus in Washington
A railroad foreman in School District No. 32 gets a creative, if costly, solution for his son's commute.
Down in school district No. 32 seven pupils are attending school, one from Plymouth, and six from Longview, but the residents of the Plymouth community, because of superior voting strength, select the teacher and domicile her in their midst, thus compelling her to ride to and from the scene of her daily duties. The one pupil at Plymouth happens to be the son of the section foreman stationed there—fortunate youth—and he was taken daily to the educational dispensary on a railroad handcar to imbibe his prorated share of knowledge. Little attention was paid to the boy’s method of transportation until a bill for $148.75 wormed its way to the district school board for the transportation of the lone boy. The bill was allowed by the board and passed up to the county superintendent for approval. The superintendent, shocked by the expense, passed the bill up to the railroad company, whose lines traverse that district and pay 85 per cent of the taxes, with the endorsement that if they would approve the bill, he would do likewise.
“The superintendent is a man of prepared-ness, but he was not prepared for this and therefore sustained a shock to his nerves that was hard to combat.”
This 1916 dispute over school transportation costs highlights the ongoing tension between rural infrastructure challenges and taxpayer accountability. Today, districts still struggle with the high cost of bussing students in geographically isolated areas like those near the Columbia River.
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