New Mexico school district eyes prizes to grow bus ridership

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A southern New Mexico school district is trying to entice students to ride the bus with free televisions, drones, and tablets. KVIA-TV in El Paso, Texas reports (https://goo.gl/uWw4jS) the Las Cruces Public School District is offering prizes to students who ride the bus on two specific days to increase ridership. The district is working with a school bus contractor to offer more than $3,000 worth of prizes to students who ride the bus on Thursday and February 8. Those are the only two days a year the state looks at ridership to determine funding. District Transportation Director David Del Torro says the district needs the state funding to offset the decrease transportation dollars. The raffle items were provided by STS of New Mexico, the school bus contractor. District officials say they have overflow buses ready.