School Transportation News Magazine | September 2009
[First Take]
Freedom of Choice or Freedom from It? As charter and magnet school options have increased, and the writing on the White House wall
is that they will continue to do so, a report released in July revealed that real or perceived lack of transportation options present big challenges to parents in sending their children outside of their low-income, urban neighborhoods to attend choice schools. University researchers surveyed 600 parents with a combined income of up to $75,000 a year, 300
By Ryan Gray
each in Denver and Washington, D.C. One-third responded that a lack of adequate transportation options preclude their children from attending K-12 schools of choice, including magnet, charter and private schools. Te study also found that only one in six students take the bus. Unfortunate- ly, it comes as little surprise that low-income families are more likely to live near low-performing schools than compared to their higher-income counterparts, and it should come as no shock that those families able to send their kids to charter or private schools are willing to absorb longer com- mute times, as the study draws a direct correlation between higher family income and increased attendance rates at these schools. Survey results included 27 percent of the parents saying they would have chosen a school outside
their neighborhood for their children if it weren’t for problems with transportation. It should raise some eyebrows that as many as 40 percent of the parents surveyed also said that transportation issues influenced their school choice, or that they would have chosen a different school had they had enjoyed better transportation options. In Denver Public Schools, where researchers from the University of Denver focused their efforts
(researchers from the University of Washington Bothell did the same in D.C.), lies another side to the story. Nevermind that District of Columbia Public School boundaries are nearly half the size of Denver, denser in population or that DCPS transports special needs students via yellow bus. Each fall, DPS mails some 38,000 letters to families of students who qualify for school choice
based on the previous year’s state reporting of annual yearly progress. Tat figure represents 50 percent of the district’s total student enrollment. But during the 2008-2009 school year, only 1,079 students who live in areas serviced by schools that are below the minimum standards set forth by NCLB chose to ride the school bus or the district-paid RTD to higher-rated schools outside their neighborhood. Tat’s less than 3 percent of the district’s student population. And none attended the 25 area charter campuses. DPS is one of the more innovative districts you’ll find, and it is dedicated to school choice in
general and increasing the number of charter schools. Te Center for Reinventing Public Schools’ own data might support an observation made by Pauline Gervais, the executive director of trans- portation at DPS and a 33-year veteran of the industry: some parents are simply choosing to keep their kids closer to home. Under reasons for selecting choice schools, the study noted that only 16 percent of Denver par-
ents who kept their children in neighborhood schools cited academics as the primary reason. Tese same parents said location drove their decision. Meanwhile, of the parents who chose to send their children across town, 49 percent said academic quality was the deciding factor compared to just 9 percent who cited location. So why the discrepancy? Do the Denver parents not read the letters or even receive them? Ger-
vais made an additional point. Denver has a high population of English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers, higher than that of D.C. Often times the only English speakers in some low-income house- holds are the children themselves. Many of their parents are far from conversant with teachers. Ad- ditionally, many low-income, urban residents don’t have their own mode of transportation. It could prove highly difficult for them to navigate across town on mass transit to attend school meetings, or events, or even want to because of communication challenges. Yet, parents, especially those in low-income areas, remain convinced that transportation options
are few and far between. At press time, the American School Bus Council released its own find- ings from a summer survey that found that 91 percent of parents believe the school bus is integral in making student achievement possible. And 73 percent think student absents would increase without school bus service. Tis would seem to support the industry’s push to increase ridership. Somewhere, the synapses are misfiring. n
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