Citizens Taking Action for Safe School Transportation – CTASST – is a citizen group in Concord MA. CTASST arose last year, in early 2012, when Concord Carlisle's Regional School Committee proposed to outsource Concord's school busing.
A bit of history: Early on, Concord used a private contractor for school busing. But after a careful review of costs, Concord invested in its own system. Concord has now been running its own buses for 58 years, making it possibly the oldest in-house system in the state.
This has proved to be a very satisfactory solution. Periodic reviews by former school committees have found that, although quality bus service is never cheap, its in-house service is cost effective compared against the alternative. [Citizen School Transportation Committee, page 9 of the CTC Final Report.]
Compared to paying an outside service that must make a profit, over and above costs, in-house busing has saved Concord quite substantial sums over the more than half a century. In just recent years, that yearly savings is on the order of a quarter of a million dollars ($238,000) annually – detailed here. Over the almost sixty years, when adjusted to current values, the savings equate to $14 million.
Beyond consideration of costs – the quality of service, which Concord's school buses provide, sets it apart, dramatically. Concord has created a bus service with quality well beyond that of typical outsourcers.
For contact: webmaster@ctasst.org