(Columbia-AP) July 31, 2003 -- Governor Mark Sanford says the state's Education Department might be able to save money by privatizing its school bus system. Education officials say South Carolina is the only state in the nation that owns and maintains its school bus fleet.

A state-owned fleets costs millions of dollars each year in maintenance, repair, replacement and staffing.

State Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum says the Education Department will need $67 million more than it has now for the next fiscal year to pay for school bus maintenance, new equipment and driver salaries. Overall, Tenenbaum told Sanford the agency needs about $589 million more than its current state.

Sanford is gathering input from state agencies as he prepares his executive budget. Sanford says a 1998 study by the Budget and Control Board shows the state could save as much as $250 million by privatizing its school bus system.

In May more than 257 school buses were taken off South Carolina roads after the Education Department found welding defects in the vehicles' roofs. Posts connecting the roof to doors and windows on faulty buses will have to be re-welded.

The agency says a recent bus accident in Florida prompted officials across the country to inspect 2000 buses built by Indiana-based Carpenter Bodyworks, which went out of business five years ago. The state will have to absorb the cost of the repairs because the company has gone out of business. No word on what the final total cost will be.

South Carolina operates nearly 1200 buses built by Carpenter, which are between 16- and 21-years-old. The entire fleet of buses is 12-years-old, on average, with an average mileage of 163,000 miles.

In April the Department of Transportation learned it would receive a $7 million grant to help replace the buses. In December the State Department of Education spent $14 million on 200 new buses.

The state hasn't bought a new bus fleet since 1995. The General Assembly provided about $26 million last year to be spent on new buses or repair of existing buses. The Education Department already has used $14 million to buy 222 new buses. High growth areas are to get another 36 buses, at a cost of about $2 million.

updated 7:59am by Chris Rees