On 11/01/09, Connie wrote:
> Unfortunately "choice" is not an option in many school districts,
> especially with the rising cost of busing.
>
> Unless you provided busing to every person who wanted that option, no
> matter where they lived in the district and also privided busing to
> all the parents in the school zone where you were going to implement
> the change, you would never know the true community feelings. The
> cost of this busing would be really high.
>
> To get a true and accurate picture, you would also have to have it
> effect the full range of K-12. No matter how much some parents wanted
> the options, many wouldn't take it if it meant their 3rd grader was on
> it, but their 10th grader wasn't.
>
> The only places I can see making "choice" a possible idea are really
> large city districts with a lot of extra money to spend for the busing.

Busing is not a forgone conclusion or necessity. In fact our district
significantly cut busing because of financial constraints. The state
reimburses districts for students living more than 2 miles from their
school. Our district always provided busing to any student who wanted it
regardless of distance. With the financial crisis, we immediately cut out
all busing within 2 miles of the school except for dangerous situations in
which students have to cross heavily traveled streets. The net result is
that all the kids still get to school. Those parents who can't fathom
their students walking now deliver them. It can be worked out and people
will adjust, I agree with that.

By the way, I work in Texas where a lot of errrr should we say, less
documented people live. Guess what, they go home to wherever to visit
family once in a while. For now, having a 2.5 month summer allows them to
do so without impacting school too much. However, it is still and issue
during our 2 week Christmas vacation period. Many, and I mean many, of
these students take the entire month of December of the first two weeks of
January off to travel to their "home" countries. It is an issue that I
think would be actually be exacerbated by a year round policy.

But I am all for flexibility. Staggered start times, flexible class entry
and exit, objectives based instruction rather than age based instruction,
and more ownership of the educational process by students and parents would
all be good things in my book. I am not opposed to a year round calendar
but I don't think it would result in significant improvements in and of itself.

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