Parents should expect to pay $100 more a year for their child to ride a public school bus, according to a proposal that will be presented to the state Board of Education today.

At a meeting of the BOE's Administrative Services Committee this afternoon, public school officials are expected to request that bus fares increase from 35 cents to 75 cents for a one-way trip. For annual bus riders, that means the cost to ride the bus will increase from $119.60 to $225.

The fare increase proposal comes at a time when the state Department of Education is struggling to subtract some $227 million from its roughly $1.8 billion annual budget. Education officials note that the state can no longer afford to subsidize bus transportation at the level it has for years.

"There is only so much water in the well," said Randy Moore, assistant superintendent for school facilities and support services.

"You can spend your money on school buses or you could spend your money on teachers and books," he said.

Under the plan, a family on the Windward side of O'ahu with two children attending public school would pay $210.80 more a year to ride a school bus.

Currently, the DOE covers about 93 percent of the cost of operating the school bus system, which serves roughly 40,000 pupils, or about one-fourth of public school students. Of the approximately $45 million it takes to run school buses throughout the state, the DOE only collects about $3 million in revenues.

If the increase is passed by the BOE, it would generate an additional $3 million in revenue after the plan takes effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

Janis Akuna, a member of the state Board of Education, said that increasing bus fares is going to be a necessary, but unpopular, decision.

"The problem with this area, the problem with operating something like buses, is the costs continue to go up and up and up even though there is less money," Akuna said.

"We're subsidizing 93 percent. Just look at that number. It's huge," she said.

In 2007, the DOE attempted to raise bus fares from the current 35 cent one-way fare to $1. That proposal was met with significant opposition by board members, who worried the fee increase would affect middle-class families the most.

Only about 60 percent of the 40,000 school bus riders pay for their fares, Moore said. That's because students receiving free meals under the federal lunch program also receive a free bus pass from the state. Students with special needs, whose Individual Education Plans call for door-to-door bus services or who cannot ride a regular bus, also receive free transportation from the state.

"There's an across-the-board mandate from the superintendent to reduce spending by 5 percent," Moore said. That includes utilities, repair and maintenance and food service, he said.

In July, the city's TheBus raised its monthly student bus pass rate from $20 to $25. Moore noted that Honolulu area schools are not provided with school buses, so urban students must purchase their own bus passes.

"One could argue that it's difficult to justify charging students more to ride the bus in Honolulu than to ride the bus in Waipahu," Moore said.

Herbert Watanabe, Big Island BOE member, said the bus fare increases would affect middle-class families more because students from lower-income families, who qualify for free lunches, would continue to receive free transportation services.

"If you have a family of three kids, none of them receive any stipends for lunch, then it becomes pretty tough," Watanabe said. "On the other hand, if you don't raise the fees, where do we get the money?"

The DOE estimates that the cost to operate the bus system will increase by about 15 percent over the next year.

The reason transportation costs increase each year is because the DOE's bus contracts run for six years and about 15 percent of those contracts are up for rebid every school year.

Because of the increase in labor, fuel and maintenance costs, when a contract comes up for rebid, the price nearly doubles from when it was last negotiated six years ago.