Some pupil transportation problems in the public schools of West Virginia

Pupil transportation is coming to be considered an indispensable service in the West Virginia school systems. In the year 1941-42 more than 132,885 pupils were transported to and from West Virginia schools daily. This was an increase of 77,886 over the number transported in 1932-33 or an increase of about 8,660 annually. The average daily attendance in the public elementary and secondary schools of West Virginia for the year 1941-42 and 395, 065 which shows that 33.63 per cent of all the pupils attending the public school were transported at public expense. The sum of $2,142,943.40 was spent for transportation, or 7.38 per cent of the total budget of $29,000,000.00. When the County Unit Bill became a law it consolidated the authority of 398 local boards of education into fifty-five county boards. The aim of consolidation, as one plan of equalizing the educational opportunity for rural and urban pupils, was now possible. In many instances the local opposition was overridden and the prepare of centralization went forward. This accounts for the rapid increase in the number of pupils being transported. The demand for better elementary schools, with the ideal to provide free, fulltime public high school advantages for every child in West Virginia, caused new bus routes to be established and old routes to be extended into more remote areas from the schools