No Planetarium for You

On the Corkscrew by Marjorie Lipan on Flickr.

If city school bus contractors have their way, children will no longer get the chance to experience destinations like the Museum of Natural History, the Bronx Zoo, or the Hall of Science with their classmates, teachers, and for the unlucky, their parent-chaperons. As the price of gasoline around the city and the nation continues its climb to never-before-seen heights, bus contractors are requesting that the Department of Education immediately eliminate field trips from public and nonpublic schools.

The last contract between the busing companies and the DOE was signed in 2005, and the next renewal is not scheduled until 2010. In the time since ‘05, the contractors told the Post, they have had to absorb over $20 million in additional costs as a result of the 70% spike in fuel prices. They claim that the additional costs, which cannot be passed along to customers as airlines do, may drive smaller busing companies out of business for good.

For now education officials are not buying it–and will continue to hold the companies to the original contracts that they have signed. We’ll have to see what happens when we hit the $7 or $10 per gallon as predicted yesterday in the Sun.