The district will pay through their contract to have all the buses retrofitted with new seats that have belts, most probably in excess of $1,000,000 additionally with belts there will be less seating capacity so there will be additional buses needed to transport kids to school as well as sporting teams to events, fans to events etc etc.

As a former Board member and President I would be asking why the necessity? I am not aware of any abnormal statistics on injury or death on school buses vs. other modes of transportation. In fact I would be willing to wager that they are a very safe mode of transportation compared to all others. If there are injury or death it usually happens outside the bus when someone ignores the red lights.

I have no problem with the dialog, at the end of the day I don't believe the statistics will support the cost.

Also will the district pay for the belts or will Van Galders since they own the busses and not the district.

The mini busses used on the JSD routes all have seat belts. The large busses do not. There are still rural routes that have full bus with 3 to a seat. My concern is how will the driver with 72 kids on the bus be able to police this. Will the district hire bus aides for these routes? I think not since they don't have enough for all the special ed routes. Also can you picture the football team dressed in pads get on a bus and buckle-up yeah right.

Tell ya what testy, DON'T use your seatbelt. But, when you get in a wreck and are injured due to the fact that you were not buckeld in, all of your medical bills would be an out of pocket expense and NOT covered by your insurance.

oooppppss it should be "a bus like a plane".

Lets think about this....isn't a bus like a plan? It has rows and lots of seats, so why is it that you must (recommended) that while you are seated on a plan that you buckle your seatbelt, but the kids can just bounce around like balls in the lottery game? I don't support the government controlling our lives as adults... but there must be some common sense when it comes to the kids, especially when we are putting them under the responsibility of another adult (who is driving a big vehicle and dealing with more kids than what a teacher does). Seat belts will help (now how do you enforce it).

So are buses not as crowded as they were when I was a kid? I remember sitting three to a seat when I was in school. I can't imagine trying to buckle in three kids in one seat. I suppose there are more buses now and not as crowded. I'm all for seat belts.

I inquired about this recently with my children's bus company (not Janesville). I was told that seat belts were actually a safety HAZARD on a school bus. The reason? If children are on the bus and there is an accident, the children could be trapped in the safety belt and the driver unable to unbuckle them.

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IMHO, this is a load of manure. First - most kids of school age are perfectly able to unbuckle themselves in a car or on a school bus. If the child is knocked out in an accident he or she isn't leaving the bus under their own power with or without a seat belt. Basically I see it as a lame excuse to not provide safety equipment. I can't even take my 2nd grader in my car without a belt AND a booster seat, but the bus can take them with neither? Time to bring busses into the 21st century.

Hey at least give the kids that want to wear the seat belt an option. Argue all you want but it is a FACT...seat belts save lives. The number one thing a person can do to increase their life expectancy is to wear your seat belts. No need to argue. This is fact.

JTMEC...HOW DARE you use simplistic FOX NEWS CHANNEL tactics to discard an entire message board post based only on the final few sentences. For shame, sir. For SHAME.

You are entitled to your political views. BUT, this article was not about the war, the banking industry or any political candidates. Your comments are very inappropriate.

All I know is, I was issued a "seatbelt violation ticket" a number of months ago, and it is bullcrap. Can someone please explain to me how is it the Federal Government's job to require people to wear a "seatbelt"? Smells like fascism to me. But whatever. Fine. Citizens are required to wear a seatbelt. But when I am driving a car under my own control and supervision, I am responsible for my own outcome. That is the chance I take. But BUSSES are not required to make sure their passive passengers have the same "protection"?? This is a stunning hypocrisy of the law of the land. Or the law of the city. Or the law of...well...possibly an outside consultant can help the city with this conundrum. Honestly, parents, who knows what kind of maniac is driving that school bus!!!! And what about the teenagers riding in the back of pickups on Milton Ave while enjoying "The Circuit" on any given Friday night? They are not required to wear belts attached to the up part of a pick? That is an outrage to responsible drivers like myself, who have to "buckle up" to independently navigate our "own" motor vehicles toward an adult-themed store to buy pornography. On that note, we have ALL heard the stories about unfortunate folks who have been in serious car accidents...and died because they were not able to unhitch their seatbelts while they hung upside-down in their fiery crash. Sure, sure, those stories might not be as frequent, but even just "one" death due to "mandatory beltish constrictions" should be enough to disallow this fascist law. Bottom Line: "Buckle Up, Or Don't Buckle Up." Good God man, aren't there more important things for the government to be focused on???? Like the Iraq War, or Federal Bailouts, or Sarah Palin's mental retardation??? (Sorry, I should probably put a "seat belt" around my last comment, and instead call it "Sarah Palin's Developmental Disability." Now we are all safe.)