Students need to get to school to learn
By Diane Ako
Public school starts on July 30 this year, and as a mother of a soon-to-be-attending-public-school child, I followed the recent issue of school bus service with interest. Recently, the Hawaii State Department of Education recommended elimination of school bus routes in the face of a $17 million budget shortfall, which would have affected 20,000 students.
Hawaii State Rep. K. Mark Takai (courtesy Hawaii State Legislature)
Despite the added $11.7 million, the Department is still $5.5 million short. We learned over the weekend that 2,380 students on 103 routes will still not have bus service.That's when State Representative K. Mark Takai (Aiea, Pearl City) stepped in and stood up for our children. Rep. Takai is credited with helping bring in more than $8 million that was recently deposited into the DOE checking account. The Board of Education used most of it to address cuts to student bus transportation, essentially restoring $11.7 million in bus cuts.
"Many parents and children across Hawaii depend on student bus service, and while there are significant issues surrounding the cost of this bus service, not having buses picking up students is a calamity. Our main priority is to improve student achievement," Rep. Takai told the Board of Education. "Children cannot learn without being in school, and many students will not go to school without bus service."
I agree with Rep. Takai. I can't imagine how anyone expects children -some as young as kindergarteners- to walk more than one mile to school. My five year old surely won't walk a mile, and I certainly wouldn't let her do it unattended for many years! I have a car and I can drive her to school. What do you do if you don't have that luxury? I guess you chance it.
I called Rep. Takai, who told me of the plight of a first-grader who lives at the top of Aiea Heights Drive. Her bus service wasn't restored and is part of the current $5.5 million shortfall. She now will need to travel three miles to Alvah Scott Elementary on Moanalua Road on streets without adequate sidewalks. It's a dangerous situation that still needs to be addressed.
Rep. Takai's efforts have, in total, netted more than $40 million in funds for the schools, from a federal program that provides funding to the state when military base housing is under renovation. Rep. Takai says, "Without the partnership of the military housing officials and the military school liaison officers, this funding would not have been possible."
Takai is a tireless advocate for our kids, putting their education first. Thanks, Representative Takai, for ensuring most of our students across the state get to school on July 30- and every day after that.
Small Talk
July 4th, 2012 at 7:00 am
Diane, while I agree that school bus service for little kids might be necessary, I also agree with the need to cut the budget of our government. The school board should be given a specific number of dollars for all the needs of the entire school system, and then it's up to the school board to allocate priorities and decide where to make the cuts needed to balance the budget. Should they cut the budget for books and teacher salaries in order to provide more money for school buses? That's up to the school board. It's not up to some politician to intimidate you by telling you that you need to vote for higher taxes to support all the government "services" at their present levels, or else they will cut things you dearly love.
We face this problem at every level of government. We simply cannot keep on spending like a drunken sailor. Government bureaucrats know that the way to avoid budget cuts is to say that "If you cut the budget we won't have enough for police, firefighters, and schools." That's nonsense. We must insist that our government officials work within a smaller budget, and make the cuts wherever they will do least harm. Don't let them hold kids as hostages to bureaucratic waste. When they threaten to cut essential services, we must threaten to cut those politicians for trying to intimidate us.
Here's an analogy. Suppose Claus says "Honey, we need to reduce our household budget. There's not enough money for your cupcakes and mint chocolate chip ice cream, and swimming lessons for Olivia." And your reply to him is "Well, the first thing to cut is the special oils I use when I give you those full-body massages." Nasty, eh?
July 4th, 2012 at 8:16 pm
oh how about a person that pick a house closer to the school..do they get tax break since they don't put themselves out to live far and use the bus service... or how about teach the kid to ride bike or open another smaller school for kindergarten to grade two so they don't have to cross busy street....if you hire more teachers it would be cheaper than buying a bus and paying gas....or pay older kids walk with a younger kid...or hire a guy to help kids cross the busy street...
July 5th, 2012 at 3:52 am
I have better idea educate people if you cannot afford to pay for bus BUY CONDOMS CHEAPER THAN HAVING KIDS...condoms....or no need to buy that toothpaste and skip dental cleaning for the dog...omg...see how I do the budget !
July 5th, 2012 at 3:58 am
skip toothpaste for the dog....I save five buck...then at the end of the day dental cleaning for dog will cost a thousand full of rotten teeth...omg....hey I want budget for dog cleaning tax will pay...omg....kid can walk the dog need the teeth...omg!
July 5th, 2012 at 4:13 am
or I got another good idea..the parent can home school the kid until grade three and teach the kid to ride the bike and cross the street then send the kid to school or take turn with another parent to cross the kid to school..see problem solve not putting anybody out for hand out money....!
July 5th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
I've walked along Moanalua Road many times. It has sidewalks.
That aside, you're only highlighting one aspect of the story. Bus service has been getting increasingly expensive, and the DOE has been unable and/or unwilling to do anything about it other than try to get more money, which takes away from other programs. I think the legislature did what it had to do to stop the bleeding and force the DOE to do something about it; all indications were that had they not done so, bus service would continue to take a larger and larger chunk of the DOE budget.
July 6th, 2012 at 9:04 am
While you may not expect a five year old to walk a mile, that's not unreasonable for older kids, e.g., high schoolers.
Perhaps the cuts should be tied to age as well as distance.
July 7th, 2012 at 6:58 am
This is why safe routes to school projects are so important. Kids should be able to walk and ride their bikes to school, but they need the facilities (sidewalks, bike lanes, bike parking, etc.) to safely do it. It would also help with the obesity rate. Budget cuts are not going away, so we need to think differently on how we use our money.