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Having attended private schools in towns over, we never had the need for public funded busing. Parents who lived near each-other worked out car pool schedules to get us to a from school. I feel like schools struggling for funding would do well ditching school buses.
Perhaps it would make the parent take more of an active role in their child's education.
Generally if parents can afford private school, they can also afford a vehicle, even multiple vehicles, (or at least the vast majority of parents can).
It is a very different situation when you have a district where the vast majority of families do not have vehicles. My wife's high school has 1400 students, and less than a dozen actually drive to school. In comparison, the suburban high school of 1600 that I attended had to hold a lottery for the 400+ spaces in its parking lot.
It's in the school's best interest to ensure that as many students as possible attend on a regular basis, because absences affect funding and overall success, which is measured in various ways. The point of buses is not to give parents an excuse to be uninvolved; it's to help get as many students to school instead of skipping school because they don't have a ride.
When we lived in California, parents had to pay for bus passes. Here in Illinois, we don't. I'm sure the schools keep a sharp eye on how many buses they have to keep running.
Generally if parents can afford private school, they can also afford a vehicle, even multiple vehicles, (or at least the vast majority of parents can).
It is a very different situation when you have a district where the vast majority of families do not have vehicles. My wife's high school has 1400 students, and less than a dozen actually drive to school. In comparison, the suburban high school of 1600 that I attended had to hold a lottery for the 400+ spaces in its parking lot.
I see your point about a large city.
But what drives me nuts is being from a semi-rural area and getting stuck behind a school bus that is going from street to street in which the kids are getting out of their parents car (which is idling), and into the bus. If you are going to drive your kid to the end of the street, idle in your car to keep the kid warm, why not just drive them to school?
Having attended private schools in towns over, we never had the need for public funded busing. Parents who lived near each-other worked out car pool schedules to get us to a from school. I feel like schools struggling for funding would do well ditching school buses.
Perhaps it would make the parent take more of an active role in their child's education.
There are many needs for school buses. Many larger cities work out deals with public buses and trains to get kids to school.
1. Many parents do not own vehicles
2. Many (most) also work shifts that would keep them from being available to pick up or drop off kids (8-5 is pretty standard, which mean the kid is going to need to get home on his/her own, some parents work overnight shifts or go in early in the morning, which would also make getting kids to school a headache)
3. Traffic problems: The traffic tie-ups this would cause near schools could be horrendous. I see a lot of parents blocking the sidewalks and roads by nearby schools during the week. It would only be worse if every parent had to stop at the school.
4. Federal law requires at least some form of free transportation.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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With most kids having two working parents that commute a good percentage cannot drive them at the right time. I agree that the taxpayers should not have to pay for this, however, so charging for bus service as we did when I was in CA makes sense. I was on a district budget committee that made the recommendation and there was great opposition from many parents but also from the union drivers. As it turned out the board considered only two options, parents pay or discontinue the bus service so it passed.
I could be wrong, but I don't believe it is a law in Penna to provide bussing. But here are the problems. The largest city school near us 45 minutes away does not provide bussing to HS students. The absentee rate is great - many of the students live over 7 miles from the school. Some of these areas do not have public transportation. The drop out rate is higher than normal because the parents get fined if the students miss too much school - so the kids just drop out.
In our district more than 50% of the students live anywhere from 5-25 miles from the high school. While I don't agree with the bus stopping at every house, there would be no way students could get to school w/o bussing.
It seems to me the use of school buses has exploded.
Some busing is unavoidable. Honestly though there are a lot of parents who choose a house so that their child can be bused, rather than walk to school.
i can only say it's quite necessary in china, especially the countryside schools.
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