HUNDREDS of Tasmanian families received an average of $3260 towards petrol or flight costs to take their children to school last year.
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The Department of State Growth pays a conveyance allowance to students who live more than 4.8 kilometres from their nearest "educationally appropriate" school or bus stop.
Department figures given to The Examiner reveal the government spent $1.4 million on conveyance allowances in 2015.
A department spokesman said 451 families received the allowance, with the total number of students covered by the program being 599 - 493 state school and 106 non-government students.
The allowance is not income tested.
Families transporting multiple students by car are only given one payment.
"Where there are multiple children in a family that need to travel by air from the Bass Strait islands to access high school or college, payment is available on a per student basis," the spokesman said.
Bass Strait island students who receive the allowance are paid the cost of nine return air fares per year.
Labor Education spokesperson Michelle O'Byrne said there would be many genuine cases where families should be paid the subsidy, but the state needed to ensure people were not bypassing their local school and still receiving it.
"If people are making their own decision to bypass their local school, you need to be quite sure about why they are making that decision and whether or not the government should be subsidising that," Ms O'Byrne said.
She has joined a number of others, including businessman Royce Fairbrother, who have called for a review of the state's school transport system.
She said rather than giving petrol subsidies to families, it could be cheaper to review the bus system and pick children up earlier.
Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding said conveyance allowance principles had not changed from when Labor was in power.
"As part of a responsible government, we regularly review programs for their effectiveness and equity," he said.