Indiana Continues to Make Awesome Decisions

[Content Note: Class warfare.]

More terrific news from the Conservative Legislation Lab:

Indiana's public school districts are not required to provide bus services to students, according to a ruling Tuesday morning from the Indiana Supreme Court.

The 5-0 decision says districts are under no constitutional mandate to provide transportation for students to and from school.

The ruling overturns an appeals court decision last year that said charging bus fees was unconstitutional, and that districts were required to provide free bus service to all students to and from school.

...The justices ruled Tuesday that while the Indiana Constitution refers to a free public education, "the framers did not intend for every aspect of public education to be free."

"This court does not dispute that being present at school is necessary to avail oneself of the benefits of the education offered there. However, that does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the school corporation alone must provide transportation under the Education Clause," Justice Steven David wrote.

Several school districts around the state have suggested the possibility of ending bus service, as a way to close large budget deficits.

"Even if we presume that the argument is based upon schools being equally open to all, the decision to cease transportation services does not deny open access to public education. It will inevitably require some families to make alternative accommodations, but it will not close the schoolhouse doors," David wrote in the opinion.

Naturally, this ruling will disproportionately affect families in poverty, who can't afford a car or payment for alternative transportation in districts that can now legally discontinue free bus service.

And, of course, both students and parents will be penalized if students don't attend school. To wit: Moina Lucious, who was arrested, charged with a felony count of neglect, and faced six month to three years in prison after her son accumulated 19 unexcused absences and was tardy 30 times during a school year.

So, schools are under no obligation to make sure students can get to school, but can work with the state to incarcerate parents who cannot get their students to school.

Indiana currently has a state budget surplus exceeding $2 billion, but school districts are petitioning to end bus service for school children in order to offset local deficits.

And the actual, real reason that surplus is not being accessed is because Republican Governor Mike Pence bragging about his state's surplus gets him more cred among conservatives than spending money to make sure children have access to education ever would.

Your modern Republican Party, in a nutshell.