Letter: Charter schools should provide transportation to students

During the 2014 Louisiana legislative session, Rep. Vincent Pierre passed a piece of legislation, directing the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to explore free transportation options for Louisiana students attending state-authorized charter schools.

As a result of the study, BESE will now require all future state-authorized charter schools to offer free transportation to any student who lives more than one mile from the school and within the parish in which the school is located.

For existing state-authorized charter schools, this requirement will be phased in over a three-year period. In Lafayette Parish, there are currently three state-authorized charter schools: Acadiana Renaissance Charter Academy, Lafayette Renaissance Academy and Willow Charter Academy. In most cases, the private, for-profit companies that run these schools have been opposed to offering student transportation services due to the costs affecting their profit margin.

Now, they’ll be required to service the interest of students, and not their own interests. I applaud Pierre for his work on this very important issue. Now, students that would not otherwise have the means will now have a ride to school.

Iris George

Lafayette