Letters: Old school buses could cost SC more than replacements

Several years ago, South Carolina opted not to encrypt the Revenue Department’s database in order to save money. If memory serves correctly, the state paid far more than it saved in order to provide credit monitoring for virtually the entire population of the state. Goodness only knows if all the information was ever encrypted. I, for one, will never again deal with the Department of Revenue electronically.

Fast forward to 2017, when the current governor vetoes a plan to spend lottery money to replace buses used to transport public school students. The governor says, legitimately, that lottery money should be used for scholarships.

However, the purpose of these school buses is to transport K-12 students, and it is called an “education” lottery. It would be wonderful if all of the students on these buses can live to the age to qualify for a scholarship.

The Department of Education and even former mechanics who worked on the current fleet have warned that many of the buses currently in use are in very poor repair and could be extremely dangerous if involved in any type of accident. I sincerely hope they are replaced before one of them is involved in a catastrophic situation. Should that happen, the lawsuits could cost the state billions — potentially making the money that would have been used from the lottery funds look like chump change.

Perhaps the state motto should be “penny wise and pound foolish.”

This story was originally published June 25, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Letters: Old school buses could cost SC more than replacements."