Today i was sitting on the porch of my apartment about 45 minutes after getting my son on the bus. Right before I came in, I saw a child about the same age (maybe 6 or 7 years old) walking back to, what i assume was his apartment, and going in.
Then a wonderful (or at least I thought so) idea hit me. What happens if your a parent without a car and your child misses the bus? Well, unless you live pretty close to the school, or you can call someone, your child misses a school day, that's what. That missed school day isn't because they are sick, so now they have one less sick day, and most importantly, they miss a full day of an education that potentially could have been a pivotal day in they're life.
So what can we do about this happening? It's actually so simple, I can't believe no one has thought of it before. Either the school, or the city should use one of their buses to go around to apartments, and main streets, and pick up the students that missed the first bus to school. These kids who would have normally missed a day of school, now have a second chance to get a safe ride. This could keep absences down and maybe even help with keeping grades up, now that they aren't missing important lectures in class.
The students might still be tardy, because the bus would be running after all the other buses were done with their routes, but hey, tardy is still better than absent, right? Right.
After this idea hit me this morning, i knew i just had to get it out and wrote down before i forgot. It really seems like something simple that should already be in place, but sometimes it's the most simple ideas that escapes us. Also, i'm sure an extra bus route costs money for gas and up keep, but it's really worth it. And they could run the bus on just the main roads instead of all the side streets and save a bundle there. Kids could just walk (with their parents if they're young) down to the main road and catch the 'second chances' bus to school.
With the economy the way it is now, we can't afford for our children to lose even one moment of their education. This could be the thing that gives them an extra edge, or maybe even turn that C grade into a B.
And that is the first (of hopefully many) random thought from the world of Jessica.
It's a nice idea, if you assume school is a good thing, which I don't, but we'll ignore that for a moment.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that you are basically talking about a second run of buses. The cost and logistics of that are higher than you would think, plus there's the trend for people to use the second run as their primary.
Even if you mean just a few buses rounding up stragglers, a few buses could not cover the whole school district easily.
Another cheaper approach might be something like taxi cab vouchers good for like 2 or 3 rides per year per student.
Shameless plug:
http://underlore.com/TBA/?p=558 (New School)
There was a certain family on your old street that would call the bus garage when their kids over slept and claim that the bus never ran so that another one would come get their kids... maybe instead of a route, a ride for those that call and fess up to getting up late, burning breakfast, ripping their clothes...whatever. I like the voucher idea, but knowing that the cabs don't always come... I wouldn't really want to try (though we now live close enough to walk should the problem arise).
ReplyDelete@innomen - yeah, say they use it everyday. The bus actually runs late, after the other buses have ran. So using this everyday wouldn't be a good idea. You would be tardy if you rode it, if you were tardy everyday, it would count against your attendance. its kind of a last resort thing.
ReplyDelete@playful pandora, ah yes, you'll have that with people making excuses as to why the bus wasn't caught. These people would benefit the most from this. but they would want to watch the tardies their kids get, i believe ashland has a limit of 5. and you could rack that up fast!
yes i thnk this would work . like you said it would help and people wouldnt or shouldnt use it everyday cause of the tardy thing and would be defeating the purpose. so yea i like it alot and Im gonna send this to our school for them to check out. that okay with you? Im gonna send them the link? lots of people without cars where i live and lots miss the bus and in small area like ours i think this would be nice:)
ReplyDeleteyeah, that would be great. what good are ideas if we can't utilize them? I would love to see an idea i had actually make an impact on something (a positive impact anyway).
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