Oregon Public School Transportation Funding - The Chalkboard ...

Figure 1: Most of the State's School Bus Riders Are Located in
Relatively Few Districts, 2006-07 School Year
Source: ECONorthwest analysis of ODE data
Transportation Spending by Cost Center
In general terms, transportation spending falls into four cost centers: wages,
purchased services (e.g. contract transportation services), supplies and materials
(e.g. diesel fuel, tires, maintenance supplies), and capital (e.g. buses). As Figure 3
shows, wages and purchased services comprise the vast majority of spending on
student transportation. Supply and material costs, although comprising a relatively
small portion of total spending, have grown over time as diesel prices and other
petroleum-based supplies, such as tires, have increased. Capital costs, which
consist mainly of bus depreciation costs, but also include facility depreciation
costs, fluctuate year to year as investments by districts in transportation-related
capital tend to be cyclical.
School Transportation ECONorthwest January 2009 Page 38