Councillor Tobin weighs in on busing Boston students to private and parochial schools in today's Boston Globe:

The Boston public schools, facing a growing deficit that will lead to severe budget cuts, spend more than $2 million a year to bus students to private and parochial schools around the city, even though the school system has no legal obligation to transport most of them.

Many of the buses traverse the city with far more empty seats than students. More than a dozen of the bus routes transport fewer than 10 students, according to a report presented to the School Committee this week. One bus brings a single student to a South Boston Catholic school, while another carries just one student to a private school in Hyde Park.

The free rides, the subject of increasing scrutiny, have pitted some school and city officials against each other in a potentially volatile debate. While officials are desperately searching for budget cuts, they are also wary of the political implications of eliminating the quietly treasured perk.

"It pains me to know that we are transporting private school children while we are cutting math and reading coaches in our public schools," said committee member Helen Dájer. "I don't know how we can defend that to folks in the Boston public schools."

But others, including John M. Tobin Jr., a city councilor from West Roxbury, are arguing to keep the service in place

To read the entire story go to The Boston Globe.