Brian Jaeger

                                                                                                                    Morris

 

 

 

The Bussed

    The year is 2050. A "busload" of three hundred Milwaukee students takes off from the Slayton Aeroport. The Western Bus accelerates to Mach 3. Nine minutes to Minneapolis, another six to Fargo, almost fourteen to Rapid City, and eight more minutes to Cheyenne. Less than an hour! Each city has their own specialty schools, not to mention the benefits from state integration. The Portland/Seattle Express awaits clearance...

 

 today 

    No one wants to ride a bus for an hour every morning, do they? You know what, maybe some people do. The bright yellow exterior with black trim and a sea of  green or brown seats on the inside really make a statement. The students, however, are rarely impressed by the roar of  all twelve cylinders. The students, in fact, are not at all impressed with the bus or busing itself.

    Politics seem to have interfered with the welfare of the students. Busing to such a major extent exists because of  the abandoning of neighborhood schools in favor of integration and specialty schools.

    I've often felt that the concept of a "gifted and talented" school is discriminatory to all, I assume, "non-gifted and talented" students. Specialty schools were designed to make parents feel good about sending their kids off on a bus to meet a quota. I hope that people are finally starting to realize that the children are not just numbers, but humans. Living a few blocks from a perfectly good school and busing to a "special" school is completely ridiculous! Our grandparents love to tell us about walking five miles to school in blizzards. Milwaukee has more than one elementary school per square mile: a luxury, I think. The bottom line is that kids can walk from one block to one mile in order to reach school everyday (it has been done successfully).

    Honestly, integration has done little for me, save to prove that both whites and blacks are, in fact, racist. If more schools are needed where more people live, simply building new ones will be cheaper than busing year after year. Essentially, people should not have to leave their own neighborhoods for a decent education.

    Chapter 220, school choice.... we must stop while we still can!  The grass is always greener on the other side, but trespassers are not welcome. We should acknowledge the problems and deal with them in our own community. Ride's over!