A group of 10 school-bus companies filed court papers yesterday to put the brakes on a controversial city Department of Education cost-cutting plan to eliminate 250 routes beginning Dec. 4.
Peter Silverman, a lawyer for the coalition, said the proposal will “result in a chaotic situation in the dead of winter” for tens of thousands of students.
“This is something you do at the beginning of the school year with substantial advance planning,” Silverman said. “You don’t go forward with this when it’s 12 degrees outside and run the risk of having kids waiting for buses that never show up.”
The companies, which claim they will be forced to lay off 270 workers, filed for a restraining order in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The department contends the plan will save $20 million annually by cutting routes that go unused by students.
“It is regrettable that as we’re working to get more taxpayer dollars into our city’s classrooms, bus companies are asking us to pay for empty school-bus seats,” said David Cantor, a spokesman for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
The department has required students eligible for bus service to register for it, but just 63,000 of the roughly 100,000 students thought to be eligible responded to the registration forms.
That leaves unclear how many students take the affected routes, though company logs they show they serve 72,750 kids daily.