Education Authority considers ending free school transport
The Education Authority (EA) in Northern Ireland is consulting on plans to charge for school transport to save money.
Primary school pupils get free transport if they live more than two miles from their school and post-primary pupils do if they live three miles away. But in an effort to make savings the EA is considering scrapping the current system.
The body needs to make savings of about £45m in 2016/17 and a further £50m in 2017/18 and £37m in 2018/19.
The EA's chief executive Gavin Boyd said he would launch a consultation on the plans before any changes are introduced and that the agency “could not continue to do all of the same things in all of the same ways as we have done in the past".
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