HOW MOTORBUSES AID EDUCATION.
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This Study of How the Problem is Dealt with in the United States Shows that the Modern Passenger Vehicle is the Key to the Efficient Training of the Empire's Rising Generation.
ONE OF the most pressing of Empire problems is that of providing educational facilities for the children of settlers. On the face of it, it is impracticable at once to build a school and find teachers as the pioneer settlements
ere made. In such districts settlers find that if they are to have any opportunity of getting their children educated they inust convey them twenty miles or more to the nearest school. Even allowing for the fact that such settlers can afford an automobile, the time taken in getting their children to and from school can ill be sacrificed, for it means that two hours or so of the working day will thus be taken up. The solution of the problem lies in the use of the motorbus or motor coach.
In this, as in several other Empire problems, it would be well if the various Government authorities under the British flag were to take a lesson from the United States. The experience of that country is all the more valuable inasmuch as within the wide confines of the central and western states all varieties of climatic conditions are en
countered. This goes to prove that the passenger vehicle could be used for transporting school-children equally as well in the snow-ridden areas of wintry Canada as in the parched regions of South Africa or Australia.
For this reason we believe it would not be out of place to give an outline of the vast benefits that accrue by the utilization of the motor vehicle for carrying children to school in the more sparsely settled districts on the opposite side of the Atlantic.
Some idea of this development may be gained by reviewing the progress made during the past five years. In 1920 most of the 12,000 consolidated schools in the United States and a nnmber of the 194,000 one-room district schools used motor coaches to expedite attendance. During that year it was estimated that 50 per cent. of the children thus carried went to school in mechanically propelled vehicles.
In 1921 the consolidation of the oldfashioned one-room rural schools into modern union schools with up-to-date buildings and higher paid teachers went steadily forward. During this year Oklahoma claimed that it carried 19,480 Of its children to school by motor coach, North Carolina following up with 14,000 pupils, whilst 179 new consolidated schools were established in Georgia alone.
In 1922 the United States boasted a total of 1,838 new consolidated schools and of the 568,000 pupils transported at the public expense 267,000 rode to school in motor coaches.
A year later showed that an additional 1,393 new consolidated schools had been opened, -making the aggregate for the entire country 13,037 schools of this type. The total number of children carried to school by motor, coaches increased to 289,000.
The most remarkable developments occurred last year, when 1,424 new school consolidations were made, 200 of these being in North Carolina alone. The nuraber of coaches in use increased to 19,656, the number of children carried as passengers being 470,533, nearly double that of 1923. At the present time about 500,000 children are being carried to school daily by motor coach at an annual cost of about $17,500,000. The States of Indiana, Iowa and Ohio alone are each spending about $2,000000 annually in this way.
For many years the aim of American education authorities was to construct elementary schools to be within walking distance of every child. The building of schools, however, even so far -as two or three miles apart, continued to grow expenSive and impracticable. Gradually the authorities recognized that it would be cheaper to provide means for carrying children to school than to continue to construct buildings that might very probably, if settlement went on at a normal pace, nted rebuilding in a few years or so.
In these days the average area served by a single school is about 16 square miles in extent. Indeed, some school districts now exceed 25, 50, and even 100 square miles in area. Now that comfortable motor coaches are being used in school transportation pupils can easily travel from 10 to 18 miles to school in an hour or less. Cold and stormy weather, streams, hills, levelcrossings and traffic dangers have lost their terrors for the children.
The fleet of motor coaches maintainekl by the State consolidated school does more than carry children from and to their homes. It helps to concentrate t e wealth and energy of a large area at ot good educational establishment, or " se ool plants," as they are called in America. Many rural, consolidated dis , tricts now have an assessed property valuation of 2i to 10 million dollars. It is minutes rather than miles that will govern school attendance in the future, but obviously the first necessity is the construction of good roads. Many of the school coaches operating in the cold belt of the United States are equipped with snow ploughs. In this • way children are enabled to attend school regularly, whereas previously the roads would be so utterly impracticable to traffic that it was physically impossible for pupils to attend, sometimes for long periods.
It has been proved that the cost per pupil of operating a mars] school and providing transportation is actually less, in many instances, than the expense of maintaining several one-room schools. In some districts coaches are -used to make two trips, the lessons being so arranged that some pupils start and finish their day's studies one hour earlier than the others. In many cases, where the old single-room schools have been abandoned, they have been sold for conversion into residences or barns, the money thus raised going to buy motor
coaches.
rb.,) scheme is also being carried into effect in those areas where sufficient school facilities already exist. In districts under the control of one County Board of Education and a County Superintendent it is not unusual for all the small schools to be abandoned and the children to be taught in a few establishments located at the natural centres of the county. Such counties buy their own buses, employ the drivers, establish the routes, adopt rules and regulations, and provide the force of mechanics . necessary to keep the vehicles in good running condition.
For instance, the authorities in Mont gomery County, Ala bama, have been trans. porting school child ren in this way for eight years. During a recent period, extend ing over nine months, they employed 20
coaches that ran a total of 107,308 miles. During the same period a number of privately owned vehicles was also hired, and these travelled a further aggregate of 22,380 miles. The per capita cost of transporting 846 children was 15 cents per child per day. This school fleet has since been increased to 34 coaches. It employs 26 driver-mechanics on full time, whilst in some cages elder scholars are utilized as drivers.Complete daily, weekly, and monthly reports are kept as to the number of children carried, miles travelled, petrol and oil used, delays, and repairs.
What is said to be the largest and finest consolidated grade elementary and high school in Kansas is that of the village of Holcomb, in Finney County. This school serves a district of 125 square miles and is attended by 500 pupils, 380 of whom are brought to school by motor coach. The 12 Iteos used (one is held in reserve) cover about 300 miles a day, in some cases bringing in children from a distance of 14 miles. Two of these vehicles are driven-by highschool boys and the remaining nine by women teachers; this saves the expense of drivers' wages.
Mississippi is another State which has improved its rural school system by the aid of the motor coach. In 1922 the number of children transported to school daily was 25,000, and since then the total has materially increased. Today this State uses 1,530 coaches for this purpose.
Wood County, Ohio, has 28 consolidated schools, to which 2,700 pupils are carried daily by motor coach.
An indication of this development is provided by the fact that American motor manufacturers are producing specially designed bodies for carrying children to school. In the design of these bodies such points as durable but c6mfortable upholstery, longitudinal .seats (providing greater opportunities for the maintenance of discipline), exhaust heating for cold weather, windows that eau only be operated by the driver, duplicated doors and hand rails for speeding up entry and exit, and other safety devices are given the closest attention.