<p>That’s what Kermit the Frog used to sing.</p>
<p>But it’s also hard being environmentally correct. Many cash-strapped school districts have eliminated bus service for their students. The cost is thus being passed on to individual families; but it also means a lot more cars on the road. </p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/education/01school.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/education/01school.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin</a></p>
<p>We carpooled when possible- although I admit that it has pros & cons. After I had a 2nd child, logistics were more difficult getting out the door in the morning.</p>
<p>Our high school in CA still offers bus service. Unfortunately the bus is very underused. At certain times of the day it is almost impossible for me to leave my neighborhood due to high school traffic.</p>
<p>The bus service at D’s school was quite underused until the gas prices hit 3-3.5 bucks. Then suddenly there were plenty of parking spots for her to choose from at 7 am, and the roads leading to her HS were not as clogged! She still had to drive since she was on a waiver to addend an out-of-area school. What happened to all of these former drivers? They packed the buses.</p>
<p>We live two blocks from our middle school. We used to live 2 blocks from my kids’ elementary school. When the ES opened, my boys were in 5th and 2nd grades. I asked permission for them to ride their bikes to school, and was denied. They said no bikes on school property because the schools don’t want to be responsible for the bikes or for any accidents. They informed me that my kids would be expected to ride the school bus. I asked, “So, you’re going to bus them two blocks to school, then teach them how to take care of the environment?” The middle school also wouldn’t let them bike. My kids walked. We didn’t really help the environment, since the busses came anyway. However, my kids got home about 20 mintues before the neighbors. </p>
<p>After my kids were past the ages of the schools, the county finally put in sidewalks. However, there are so many cars lined up waiting to pick up their kids, it makes the neighborhood rather dangerous! These are folks whose kids are too cool for the “big cheese”, but too lazy to walk. (The furthest homes from the middle school are about 2 miles. The vast majority live within a half-mile.)</p>
<p>In Germany, we lived exactly 1 km from D’s school. She rode her bike often. (We only had one bike, so she and H traded off - He liked to ride it to work, too. Parking lot for bikes at the work place was huge.) It became one of her pre-requisites on college visits - she had to see bikes on campus.</p>
<p>My H said he was going to create a political party and call it the Bicycle Party.</p>
<p>Our elementary/middle school district is cutting down on paper usage by having parents opt to receive all those school notices via email. Previously, the distict had suggested people just ‘check the website’ for relevant info, but I don’t thank that was nearly as effective as direct (e)mail.</p>
<p>My youngest daughter is about to enter middle school. We live relatively close, but I am not comforable letting her ride her bike to school. The road she would have to ride on has a 50mph speed limit and a lot of trucks.
We do have bus service, so I feel lucky for that.
I could drive her if need be, but I think she should be on the bus.
When she gets to high school he commute is a long one</p>
<p>A decade or so ago our local school board got taken over by stealth evangelicals who concealed their creationist/anti-sex education social agenda during the election. Once they had majority on the board they openly declared themselves and imposed these policies. People were outraged and the ACLU sued. </p>
<p>One of the side-effects of this was that in order to free up cash to defend against the lawsuits they had triggered, the school board did away with all school bus service. After about 18 months sanity was restored: the evangelicals were recalled at the very next election and turned out of office. The curriculum was put right.</p>
<p>But the school bus service was never restored. To this day at every school in town you see an enormous line up of cars dropping off kids before school and idling there after school, waiting for the kids. Sad.</p>
<p>In the kids last school, bus service was an additional (substantial) fee. It took over 30 minutes for private cars to get to the front of the line to pick up kids at the high school…</p>
<p>Now, our kids go to a school where bus service is included in tuition.<br>
No surprise, most kids take the bus.</p>