DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Dayton Public Schools was in court Wednesday, asking for a temporary restraining order on a part of the state budget they say singles out their district specifically.
In Franklin County Wednesday, DPS presented their case to the court, claiming an amendment to the state budget is unfairly targeting Montgomery County exclusively.
DPS looks to community for help with high school transportation amid bus changes
That amendment says that counties with a population between 530,000 and 540,000 cannot transport students to school using a central transportation hub. Montgomery County is the only county — with a population of 537,000 — that uses public transit for student busing, including using a downtown transfer station.
“The violation is blatant. It’s clear from the text of the amendment,” said John Roach, attorney for DPS.
DPS is filing for a temporary restraining order toward the state due to the amendment, with Roach saying this law will negatively impact attendance levels, which will have consequences.
“The impact of this law is going to be a lower level of attendance by high school students and a lower level attendance leads directly to lower educational outcomes.”
DPS has used the RTA to bus high school students for several years, due to limited resources as a result of busing charter school students.
This leaves the district in a holding pattern, as they try to figure out how to fix their busing issues, but are unsure what route to take due to the new state law.
“DPS is stuck between a rock and a hard place, Your Honor. Either they can not provide the transportation services that they provide their students, or they can not comply with the state law if they don’t comply with the state law,” said Roach during the hearing. “Your Honor, they are then facing catastrophic penalties under state law. The department education is entitled to withhold 100% of DPS transportation funding.”
Why is DPS suing the State of Ohio over busing?
The state, however, is asking for more time as they say the motion for the case was only filed yesterday.
“We think that any urgency that exists concerning this is manufactured,” said David Axelrod, attorney for the state.
The state says that there is no urgency since the amendment does not go into effect until the end of September.
“The city could have, for example, provided bus vouchers to some students and van or school bus transportation to others. Or they could have provided bus passes to all the high school students,” said Axelrod.
The judge will be issuing a written statement sometime this week, but there is a change that this case could go all the way to the Sept. 30 deadline.
2 NEWS will continue to provide updates on this case.
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