Randolph cuts busing

The yellow school bus - that icon of childhood, as familiar to students as reading, writing, and arithmetic - has made its last stop in Randolph, a victim of budget cuts.

The cuts, made in April and announced to parents in June, went into effect this week with the start of the new school year, forcing roughly a third of Randolph's 3,400 students to find their own way to class.

State and local education officials knew of no other community that had made such a drastic move in recent years, partly because under state law, schools must provide busing to children through sixth grade if they live more than 2 miles away.

But these are trying times for many communities, as they struggle to pay the bills in the face of higher costs, flat budgets, or voters unwilling to approve property tax increases through Proposition 2½ overrides. In Randolph, school officials say, three such overrides have failed since 2003.

Read the full Boston Globe article here.