Begin forwarded message:
From: Tracy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: November 4, 2003 2:51:08 PM CST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Mpls School Busing
I just came from a volunteer training session with the Minneapolis schools and the statistic was something like 6 million miles are driven each school year in Minneapolis to bus children to their respective schools.
That number so astonished me that I checked with the MPS Transportation Department, and a helpful man named Ben gave me the official "6.1 million odometer mile" reading for 2002-2003 school year (that includes all district buses, contracted buses, and miles devoted to moving special ed students from public schools to additional training/schooling off site. This number might include field trip miles, too. He wasn't sure about that).
My morning training instructor said something like 1/3 of the school district's spending goes to transportation. The Chicago example of a large, urban district NOT busing their kids came up. In fact, according to our instructor (a MPS employee), Minneapolis is one of only a handful of big cities in the country that does provide transportation for its students.
Given the enormity of spending on transportation (and given ever-tighter school budgets), it seems it might be a grand idea to lessen the transportation load and let at least some kids (high schoolers, say) rely on public transportation on the district's dime, if it's cost efficient and folks believe in its safety and convenience. And, as Mr. Bradley suggests, the students could end up with the added benefit of not only learning the metro transit system but maybe even learning to like public transit!
I don't know what kinds of liability the schools might retain, and it's probably not a good idea for elementary school kids (though, in 3rd grade, and after much pleading with my mother, I did begin the thrill of riding the "city" bus - we weren't bused in those days, the early 70's - from John Burroughs Elementary School up 50th Street 6 blocks to the corner of Bryant Avenue, for 10 cents. My thrill of "getting" to ride the bus continues). But high schoolers might actually think it's cool (cooler, at least, than taking the school bus, or, say, walking....)!
This idea may cause more headaches and strained debate than is palatable to a system used to extreme busing. But it's always good to think outside the box...
Tracy Nordstrom
A walker (then bus rider) from way back,
East Calhoun
