Comparing the investments made in Boston Public Schools transportation (“Some city officials suggest review of busing,’’ Page A1, July 25) with potential uses in the classroom is taking the right approach to the wrong problem.

The money BPS spends on transportation provides the public with a tangible sense of waste: buses crisscrossing through traffic all over the city, delivering students (often late) to too many school buildings to receive an education that is all too-often inadequate.

Blaming the bus for Boston’s education woes is finding one tree but missing the forest. Discretionary busing accounts for $37 million out of a $1.1 billion budget that ranks second per pupil out of the 100 largest school districts, according to the US Census. Even if Boston zeroed out that investment, Boston would still spend $6,000 more per student than the third-highest district in the United States.

City councilors are right to ask whether investments would be “better spent in the classroom, directly supporting kids.’’ That same lens should be applied to the other $1.07 billion in spending as well, including sacred cows like under-enrolled school buildings and the so-called excess pool of teachers without classrooms.

Luckily, such transparency will soon be a requirement of the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in the final year of the Obama administration.

Students and families should have a right to select from a wide range of public schools — and be bused to them. Thanks to the Obama administration, the public soon will have a right to know more about how much money is actually reaching the classroom. It is our obligation to keep asking this question, even if the answers aren’t as simple as stopping a bus.

Liam Kerr

Needham

The writer is the state director of Democrats for Education Reform.