Check out the New York Association for Pupil Transportation’s Op-Ed in The Daily News.
BY DAVID CHRISTOPHER
“Our future is riding with us!” is the proud
slogan of the New York Association for Pupil
Transportation.
More than 2.3 million children need to get to
and from school safely each day on nearly 50,000
school vehicles. As the representative of hundreds
of school transportation departments and thou-
sands of professionals across the state, the safe
transportation of these children is our top priority.
While the safety of the students we trans-
port is paramount, we are also responsible for
ensuring school transportation is efficient and
affordable. So we understand the serious im-
pact expensive vehicle insurance can have on
our school district budgets.
Unfortunately, managing the cost of school
transportation is becoming more difficult each
year and the rising costs of vehicle insurance
premiums does not make our jobs any easier —
especially when the price of vehicle insurance
premiums is the one thing that seems to go up
every year.
Whether school districts operate their own
school buses in-house or hire private school bus
companies to provide the service, they must
still pay for vehicle insurance either directly or
indirectly. And in the end, it is taxpayers who
bear the costs.
In recent years, the cost of insurance has sky-
rocketed, which means everyone involved either
must pay more for school transportation service
or risk reducing services.
One of our members, who is a private school
bus company providing service to public
schools, reported their school vehicle insur-
ance premiums increased more than $10 mil-
lion over the last three years.
This is simply unsustainable for our school
districts and property taxpayers.
Fortunately, there is an initiative that Gov.
Kathy Hochul included as part of her state
budget proposal.
This solution seeks common-sense reforms
to help drive down the cost of vehicle insurance
premiums for everyone.
The governor’s proposal is focused on going
after fraud in the system, addressing frivolous
lawsuits, and ensuring insurance companies
pass on the savings to consumers all while pro-
tecting vehicle accident victims who deserve
to be justly compensated.
Her proposal calls for strengthening our le-
gal system to improve the investigative process
and ability for prosecutors to pursue harsher
criminal penalties for everyone involved in
committing fraud, as well as targeting medical
providers who sign-off on fraudulent diagnoses.
Additionally, the governor’s proposal will help
reduce frivolous lawsuits by capping non-eco-
nomic damages, such as pain and suffering for
criminals who engage in fraudulent auto accident
activity — including drivers who are impaired.
Among other needed reforms, she is also
proposing that people minimally responsible
for accidents aren’t the ones left unfairly hold-
ing the bag if delinquent parties fail to pay up.
Because of the importance of vehicle in-
surance to our industry and the tremendous
expense to our school districts, we are thrilled
to see Gov. Hochul taking on the high cost of
vehicle insurance.
We are hopeful the state Legislature will
work with the governor on these com-
mon-sense reforms and come to an agreement
to help reduce the cost of vehicle insurance for
our school districts, taxpayers and consumers.
David Christopher is executive director
of the New York Association for Pupil
Transportation, which represents public and
private school transportation professionals
across the state dedicated to the safe and
efficient transportation of school children.