[getsmart-l] FW: school bussing

[Rose Kudlac]

I forwarded an article about cuts in school bussing in MA to a friend who is
interested in the subject and, with his permission, his comments follow.
Note especially "as much money or more is spent on school bussing as is
spent on all other forms of local transit". (I believe these are ON figures
as he works for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing).

Rose Kudlac

 

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From: McDonald, Robert (MAH)  
Sent: September 10, 2007 11:18 AM
To: Rose Kudlac
Subject: RE: school bussing

 

Very interesting. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. As you may know,
this is a topic that has interested me for a long time. One of the essential
suppports to low-density suburban sprawl is publicly-funded school-bussing -
the one is almost impossible for middle and working-class families, without
the other. School bussing can be construed as a grant to parents to
encourage them to live in the suburbs. It is also a reflection of the
widely-held belief in North America, that bigger schools are better -
whereas there is evidence that size in itself is likely to have a negative
effect, especially at the elementary level. (And it contributes strongly to
the idea that kids walking to elementarty school (or taking transit to
secondary school) as almost all urban kids did until the 70's, is unsafe. 

 

Widespread publicly-funded (i.e., free to users) school busing also makes
public transit - which would be available to other
transportation-disadvantaged people - less viable in suburban and rural
area. These cases of school busing being cut are still isolated cases, and
would appear to be a result of state legislative measures in the USA that
make tax increases difficult or almost impossible for local governments. But
they could also be seen as a precursor of things to come as the price of oil
rises. 

<snip> 

 

 One of the advantages of generalized school busing, politically speaking,
is that it eliminates the grounds for any outcry that might arise over
bussing for special programs, including programs for gifted children or
programs in French or other languages. I believe that public and catholic
schools sometimes cooperate on school busing, but I don't know how often
that happens. There was some serious consideration given in the 90's to
giving municipalities responsibility for school busing (as they are for
local transit), but it didn't make it into legislation, for reasons that had
little or nothing to do with efficiency, I suspect - this was all part of
the horse-trading over the province taking over education funding, part of
the Harris Torees' "local service realignment". 

 

This is an expensive service - mostly serving to encourage sprawl. In North
America, as much money or more (I haven't checked the figures lately) is
spent on school bussing as is spent on all other forms of local transit.

 

 Bob

 

 

 

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From: Rose Kudlac  
Sent: September 7, 2007 10:12 PM
To: McDonald, Robert (MAH)
Subject: school bussing

FYI - from an ROE2 post

 

I'm not sure what to make of this, but the town of Randolph, MA has 
cut all school bus service, except for special ed. kids, to save 
money. By redistricting their elementary schools, they've gotten 
around a state law that requires elementary grade kids be provided 
with bus service if they live more than 2 miles from school. I 
suppose getting back to neighborhood schools makes sense. Still, I 
bet at least initially, there's going to be traffic jams at school 
while parents drive all these kids. Nothing was done for secondary 
school kids. Even if you live beyond 2 miles, tough for you.

The Boston Globe article also lists a number of other, draconian cuts 
they've made to their school system, a couple of dozen teachers, 
sports, and entire schools. Normally towns do this in the face of 
dwindling enrollment, but declining enrollment is not the situation 
in Randolph from what I hear.

It smells to me like more of the slow decline we've been theorizing.

Struggling Randolph ends school bus service
RANDOLPH - The yellow school bus - that icon of childhood, as 
familiar to students as reading, writing, and arithmetic - has made 
its last stop in Randolph, a victim of budget cuts.

 <http://tinyurl.com/38odq4> http://tinyurl.com/38odq4

Stephen Beltramini
Walpole, MA

 

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