CIRCUMSTANCES DICTATE THE END OF BUSING "Black children and yellow school buses long have been inextricably linked in the history of education in America. It started with the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that allowed for school desegregation in cities like Milwaukee. That led to widespread busing movements that allowed black students to attend classes outside their neighborhoods at predominantly white schools.

A decision by the Milwaukee School Board last week to drastically reduce the amount of busing in the district will alter a fundamental relationship that has existed in this city for generations of students. But what the Milwaukee School Board did was not a statement about the racial makeup of the city's public schools, many of which are predominantly African-American. School Board member Michael Bonds, the architect of the plan, says busing isn't about desegregation anymore."When the district is 88% minority, it's not about race," Bonds told me. "It's about the fact we've spent $57 million on a failed policy."

MPS provides busing for 55,000 students a day at a cost of $57 million annually, according to reports. Bonds figures that kind of money could be better used in a school system that graduates less than half of its students. Specifically, he thinks the $20 million his proposal will save could be used to strengthen neighborhood schools, including re-opening several north side schools and providing art and music programs in those areas.For Bonds, it's a radical move, but one that demands MPS start to use its resources more wisely.

He has studied the issue and found MPS has closed schools in neighborhoods where choice and charter schools were flourishing".

The above quote is from the Milwaukee Journal and could well apply to any major city in the USA. With the cost of fuel going up every day and the Ecologists crying for reduction of the carbon emissions. There is no doubt that if Americans voted to end the use of Buses for all but rural areas we would save a very lot of fosil fuel in the form of diesel and gasoline.WE also would reduce the amount of N2O in the air. A bi-product of diesel fuel burning in the many thousand buses used in America.

The so called "soccer moms" would have to drive Seth and Janet to school instead of going to the spa, but then it is about time Moms and Dads took more responsibility for their children!