The idiocy of making students pay to take the school bus

Early in my economics classes they spoke of private and public goods.

Public goods are provided by the government or by nature for the welfare of people without any cost.

Private goods are goods that are produced and sold by private companies to earn a profit.

School Bussing is clearly a PUBLIC GOOD.  Additionally it is good for the environment(if that is something you care about).

Let's look at the pricing and incentives of riding the school bus and how that changes behavior.

Let's say the policy is for students in grades 7-12 who do not receive free/reduced lunch are required to pay $180/year for the bus with a $360/family CAP.  And, anyone under 1mile from school has to pay (since they could walk)

This is essentially $1 a day to get your kid to school and that is a very good deal and everyone should be happy to pay it, Correct?

The first question that comes to mind is "WHY DOESN'T THE TOWN PAY FOR THIS?"

The typical response is that the School Department doesn't have enough money, so they are creating a bunch of "user fees".  

We don't have time to explore this issue in this short piece.

So what happens when you charge a fee?

A bunch of parents decide that $180 right now before the school year is a lot of money so they decide to drive their kids.  Other parents decide that 1 mile is too far to walk, and the bus might pick them up on at the beginning of the trip so even though they are 1 mile away it takes 20 min on the bus and that isn't fair to their kid.  Some parents cave to their kids who say, "Jeffrey's parent's drive him to school why do I have to take the bus"

Then what happens?

All the parents line up and drive their kids to school and the traffic takes longer and you have all these cars that make it hard for kids to walk to school, and the schools aren't set up to have all these kids dropped off in cars.  Then in the afternoon it is even worse as the school now has to set up systems to verify that they are putting the kids in the right cars with their parents.  It takes longer to pick kids up then drop them off, and you have parents lined up around the schools to be the first one to get their kids.  The parents who choose to pick up their kids to avoid the fee make it harder for the parents who need to pick their kid up for an appointment or activity.

All of this is a waste.

KIDS SHOULD BE TAKING THE BUS AND THE BUS SHOULD BE FREE

Busses are more efficient than cars in moving people and are better for the environment(if that is something that you care about).

How can we create this incentive to put the kids on the bus?

INSTEAD OF CHARGING KIDS TO TAKE THE BUS

CHARGE THEM TO BE DROPPED OFF AT SCHOOL

Imagine a scenario where you have to pay $1 each time you are dropped off and $1 each day you are picked up. They charge the students for parking at school (typically due to a scarcity of spaces).  Your kid misses the bus, it costs them $1. Now imagine it is $2 or $5.  If the bus is free wouldn't you put your kid on it. 

I think the schools might make more money charging for drop off than for bus use.  They can use this money to pay for the busses which would be free for all.

This will also cut down at traffic around schools, NOT JUST FOR THE PARENTS OF THESE KIDS BUT FOR THE NEIGHBORS AS WELL.  Think of all the people who are slowed down around schools because of these parents unnecessarily dropping their kids at school.  This also takes many cars out of the area which are often cued up and idling, and replaces them with busses that can stop and turn off their engines while they wait for and drop off students. (Good for the environment, if that is something you care about)

MAKE THE BUSSES FREE AND PUT THE KIDS ON THEM