Many teachers, students, and parents have been wondering the same question over the past few years: why are field trips getting more expensive?
Last month, a group of Pascack Valley High School history and Spanish students took a trip to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. When Pascack Valley United States History II teachers Ryan Walter and Leah Jerome, along with Spanish teacher Jimena Ladino, wanted to take their students to the city, they thought it wouldn’t be too difficult. They planned to take the train in, see the memorial, eat lunch, and come back.
When the idea of taking the train was rejected by school administration, Walter was guided to book a bus for the trip. The bus seated 56 students; the price was the same whether the bus was full or not.
Walter did not have 56 kids to bring, so students had to pay $50 each just to cover the cost of the bus. Fortunately, the museum tour bill had already been covered by a donor.
Walter found this situation surprising because even without the price of the tour, he would still have to give students a $50 bill for transportation.
“I think there was a point in time, not that long ago, when a bus to the city might have cost $800 [total],” Walter said. “After COVID, you had inflation, you had gas prices going up… labor costs went up. At some point within the last five years, the cost of a bus went from maybe $800 to $1500.”
“The process of planning a field trip is really time-consuming,” Walter said. “And the only kind of bus you can take on a trip to New York City is a coach bus. You cannot take a school bus.”
Walter figured while this wasn’t an ideal situation, he’d try to cut the cost by inviting Jerome’s USII class—adding another 17 potential students. He also extended the trip to Ladino’s Multilingual Learning students– that was another three.
With the additional students from Jerome’s and Ladino’s classes, the transportation cost was lowered to $40 per student.
While this price was lower, this cost plus the price of students’ lunches on their own in the city, is still significant. Walter believes these high costs can be a deterrent.
“Maybe there’s a student who is maybe on the fence. Let’s say I want to go to Franklin Roosevelt’s house, and a student says ‘who cares about the great depression.’ They might say it’s not worth 50 bucks. Maybe it would have been worth 30 bucks to go,” he said.
Last year, Music Teacher Dr. Argine Safari took World Language students to see an opera at The Met. She faced an astronomical travel price that hasn’t been seen in previous years.
“We saw the rise of prices after COVID… the gas costs a lot more now, and insurance is up,” Safari said. “The workplace is also playing a role here, too. Some companies basically just [went] out of business, and then others are now trying to accommodate too many schools.”
Some teachers at PV are becoming frustrated with the high costs because they see field trips as effective and memorable lessons with their students.
“I think field trips have enormous value,” Walter said. “There are field trips that, for some people, actually opens a door to a career or major.”
“In all subject areas, [field trips] are really important,” Safari said. “For example, we are hoping to take our [choir] students to Hawaii for a big performance and festival. Why is it important? It’s because these kids are going to meet kids from other states, they’re going to learn new music together, they’re going to perform together, they’re going to work under the direction of other conductors, they’re going to learn about a totally different culture in Hawaii — how can you learn that if you’re not travelling?”
The two also emphasized the idea of firsthand experiences. It’s a different experience to read things online versus going to a museum and reading artifacts and testimonials for yourself.
“My most favorite memories from my school are when we had trips like that,” Safari said. “I will remember them for the rest of my life, and they were such a great learning experience. Plus, it’s a bonding experience for our students.”
“For me, I’m 48 years old,” Walter said. “I remember field trips I went on in elementary school. They’re really important. But logistically, they’re really hard to plan. And as the years have gone by, it feels as though there are more forces pushing back against you to want to actually plan one.”
