PARENTS are likely to have to pay hundreds of dollars extra in bus fares each year to send their children beyond the nearest school if a user-pays transport system is adopted.
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On Tuesday, Education Minister Nick McKim announced the government had accepted in full the eight recommendations of the School Viability Reference Group.
This includes a review of student transport that will focus on a costs scale that increases the further a student travels past their nearest school.
The group found about a third of students were bypassing their closest school, creating a headache for school planning.
The state government will spend more than $35 million this financial year subsidising student travel, including $17.7 million to provide free rural school buses and $17.5 million for urban buses.
Students who have to pay can be charged a maximum of $1.30 each way or $1 if they have a green card, no matter how far they travel.
However, the cost to taxpayers in government subsidies to bus companies goes up the further they go.
Australian Education Union state president Terry Polglase believes the escalating costs of student transport is a waste of taxpayer money.
``My concern is any wastage of money that is connected to education when it could be used to better resource schools,'' Mr Polglase said.
``Even if it's $30 or $20 million, it only costs $15 million to build a school.''
Mr Polglase said he was not against parents and students having the right to choose which school they attended.
``The question is can we now in hard economic times subsidise children to go to their school of choice?'' he said.
Tasmanian State School Parents and Friends president Jenny Grossmith said travel to the nearest school should be free, but students who travelled further should pay on a sliding scale, depending how far they travelled.
Ms Grossmith expected the government would still have to subsidise the service to make it affordable for parents and viable for bus companies.
``This is after all about kids going to school,'' Ms Grossmith said.
She was reluctant to suggest what would be a reasonable amount to charge, but said any charge would add up and affect family budgets.
``I hope that it will make parents sit back and think about where they send their kids,'' she said.
The Department of Infrastructure, Resources and Energy pays subsidies, but stakeholders hope any money saved will be invested in the public school system.
Details of the review are yet to be announced.
