Booming Fort Bragg families face school bus shortage

Fort Bragg, N.C. — Military families at fast-growing Fort Bragg face a lack of buses to take children to county schools.

The Fayetteville Observer reported Friday that more than 200 children from the Linden Oaks subdivision are enrolled at a new elementary school and the middle school across the street. The homes were built on Fort Bragg property inside Harnett County.

Subdivision residents want their children enrolled in the county schools, but the Harnett school board doesn't have the money to provide buses. Fort Bragg commanders said the Army would take the children to schools on post, but not to county schools.

About 20 families a month are moving into Linden Oaks homes, which was built to accommodate new military families moving as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure program. Linden Oaks, off N.C. Highway 87, is about eight minutes from the gates of Fort Bragg.

The military projects that military families and defense contractors could add as many as 40,000 residents to the 11-county region around Fort Bragg.

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Information from: The Fayetteville Observer

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Latest Comments

Fuquay Resident- The parents fill out forms at the beginning of the school year indicating wheather or not they work on federal property. (ie: they are in the army) If in fact the parents (one or both) are federal employees (ie: soldiers)the Federal Government subsidizes that student to the l;ocal school system to which they are assigned to alleviate the burden of their parents not paying into the tax system of that particular municipality. As far as buses go, The county buses would probably not be allowed into the linden oaks subdivision as it is a military installation. Also, The ARMY does not directly provide transportation to school for any of their students. There is a private for profit company called Bragg Lines Inc. that has a contract to provide school bus service to Ft. Bragg. They should be the ones to buy more buses. But that would hurt their profits.

smalldogsrule
August 28, 2009 12:59 p.m.

I live in Harnett County as well and it's a problem all over. I really thought the "education" lottery was for all things school related, but I guess I was wrong. There is plenty of $ in the lottery system but Wake Co. didn't rehire 300 assistants and we don't have enough busses. Maybe I should stop playing the lottery if it isn't going to actual education needs.

angielme
August 28, 2009 9:47 a.m.

The federal government really messed up on this. The 2 schools they built are already over capacity and have an enrollment cap and 20+ families are moving in each month. They either need to stop building there or move in only families that don't have kids. These families are paying no state taxes and are having to send their kids to already crowded county schools.

Fuquay Resident
August 28, 2009 9:41 a.m.

I would like to say it is not just Fort Bragg families. I have lived in Harnett county for over 30 years. The bus drivers are having to run 2 routes a day. My youngest childs bus driver runs a high schoolers route in the afternoons first then goes back and picks up the elemtary school children. This means my 6 year old does not get home till about 5 o'clock and the school is only 1.5 miles away. Not to mention they have my oldest child walking down the side of a busy road and crossing it to get to her bus stop. She gets on after I have left for work so if I dropped her off it would be way to early. It is an Unacceptable mess. Not to mention the traffic problems now. With 3 school houses in the same location and one little stop light trying to filter all that traffic makes it next to impossible to get out if you are on the wrong side of the street.

camocontrol
August 28, 2009 9:21 a.m.

Take some of ours in Wake County. Heck most of them are only 25% full.