Missouri schools: Busing cut plan will hurt classrooms

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Republican Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' plan to slash an already depleted public-school bus fund will wind up taking money from classrooms he promised to leave alone, school administrators across the state said.

When Greitens rolled out his budget proposal last week, he touted a $3 million increase in funding for K-12 schools, saying "not a single penny" would come out of classrooms.

But administrators say they will have to take money from classrooms to make up for the 34 percent cut from next year's busing aid that Greitens wants to make.

"It's not like I can just say, 'We're not going to transport kids,'" said Heath Halley, the superintendent of the Putnam County R-1 district. "We will have to come up with (the money) or put off planned expenditures like textbooks or computers."

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