The South Carolina House is about to vote on a bill that would spend millions of taxpayers' dollars to make school children safer and get them to and from school more reliably. The bill would, for the first time ever, set up a regular replacement cycle for the state's aging school bus fleet.

Right now, the state Department of Education buys new school buses sporadically, based on how much money the legislature appropriates for buses.

Donald Tudor, director of transportation for the Department of Education, says some years the state doesn't buy any new buses. This year, it's buying 36, while it bought 73 last year.

If this bill passes, the state would replace one-twelfth of the fleet every year. That translates to about 470 buses, which would cost about $30.5 million, Tudor says.

No one questions the need for newer buses. Right now, 49 percent of the bus fleet is more than 15 years old.

But during debate on the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Laurens, questioned the state's ability to afford hundreds of new buses every year from now on.

"Where exactly would we come up with this money out of the budget? Would it require a tax increase of any kind?", he asked.

Rep. Ronny Townsend, R-Anderson, is the main sponsor of the bill. "Children are late getting home and many of them are late getting to school because buses are breaking down, and I think it's time for the state to look at this and say we're going to make a commitment to a cycle of replacement every 12 years," he says.

He says it shouldn't be a financial burden because the legislature set aside almost $27 million this year for new buses, not far from the $30.5 million price tag for 470 new ones.

Much of that money this year went to higher fuel and maintenance costs instead of new buses, though. But the Department of Education estimates that having a regular bus replacement cycle would save $1.6 million the first year and $2.3 million the second year in lower costs for parts and maintenance.

The newer buses also have safety features not found on older ones. For example, buses older than 1990 don't have all the emergency exits that newer buses have, and buses before 1998 don't have anti-lock brakes.

Tudor says, "It would mean a great deal to the guarantee that the child is going to get to school on time each morning. Also to the guarantee that the child is not going to be standing on the side of the road waiting for a bus that's not going to show up for another hour because it's been broken down, or for some other reason. Standing on the side of the road is probably the most unsafe thing that we would ever want a child to have to face each morning trying to get to school."