Vernon School District 22 (SD22) has proposed to charge courtesy riders, students attending out of catchment and French Immersion and Montessori programs, in the 2018-19 School Budget.
SD22 needs to maintain their bus transportation schedule free of charge for courtesy riders. If they don’t, people will be discouraged from enrolling their children in French Immersion and Montessori programs, turning them into elitist, ‘private school’ programs for the wealthy. Charging for transport will greatly disadvantage those families who are already under financial stress, and it’s been shown all children would greatly benefit from being taught in both official Canadian languages. All children should be able to have these opportunities, not just the wealthy, ie. Every Child Matters.
Charging for transport runs counter to the Board’s argument of giving equal access to education for all, which was their main argument against sibling priority in enrolment in their Dec. 20, 2017, board meeting. Free school bus transport successfully offers equal access to these special programs to all families, regardless of the family income.
The total bus transportation cost is two per cent of the total school budget. Removing bus transport will not be a magic pill that will fix the budget shortfall. It will, however, disenfranchise the highly motivated parents of these important programs, who knowingly enrolled their children into these “free” education institutions. This would be a risky move by the board members who are up for reelection in October.
The Vernon School Board cannot start charging students for busing once the children have already enrolled in these programs. Parents enrolled their children in these programs knowing that there would be no added cost compared to enrolling them in their local catchment school. If this choice is to be made, then parents need to know this added cost before enrolling their children in these programs.
Also, buses are much better environmentally. SD22 is being myopic if they’re going to encourage parents to drive their currently enrolled kids, thus increasing polluting traffic in the area.
Karen Smith
