Hernandez's letter is insane. The obsession with busing is so weird. There is no evidence that busing negatively impacts student learning. In fact, bus availability makes truancy less likely according to some studies I have seen.
He says "children were bused disproportionately than their peers and forced to leave their community." This re…
Hernandez's letter is insane. The obsession with busing is so weird. There is no evidence that busing negatively impacts student learning. In fact, bus availability makes truancy less likely according to some studies I have seen.
He says "children were bused disproportionately than their peers and forced to leave their community." This really ignores the reality of Evanston's geography. The furthest a bused student has to go would be from Ashland and Church St to Willard, which is 2.5 miles and takes a whopping 9 minute drive. For the Lincolnwood students the furthest trip would be 1.7 miles. Some addresses in the First Ward--which also doesn't have a school--are 1.6 miles away to their school, Dewey. Nobody seems to care about First Ward students.
We are not talking a rural county in Texas or something. Evanston is a compact, small city. According to google maps you can drive from the extreme southeast section of the city to the extreme Northwest in less than 20 minutes.
Sure, it would be great to have a school within walking distance of every address in Evanston, but that is not financially feasible.
Under the new scenario we are going to have more schools than we need under conditions of declining enrollment and the whole thing is going be funded through the operating budget so every student throughout the district will see bigger classes, less extracurriculars and deferred maintenance on buildings.
And for what? No educational reason, just so a few kids don't have to take the bus!
Hernandez's letter is insane. The obsession with busing is so weird. There is no evidence that busing negatively impacts student learning. In fact, bus availability makes truancy less likely according to some studies I have seen.
He says "children were bused disproportionately than their peers and forced to leave their community." This really ignores the reality of Evanston's geography. The furthest a bused student has to go would be from Ashland and Church St to Willard, which is 2.5 miles and takes a whopping 9 minute drive. For the Lincolnwood students the furthest trip would be 1.7 miles. Some addresses in the First Ward--which also doesn't have a school--are 1.6 miles away to their school, Dewey. Nobody seems to care about First Ward students.
We are not talking a rural county in Texas or something. Evanston is a compact, small city. According to google maps you can drive from the extreme southeast section of the city to the extreme Northwest in less than 20 minutes.
Sure, it would be great to have a school within walking distance of every address in Evanston, but that is not financially feasible.
Under the new scenario we are going to have more schools than we need under conditions of declining enrollment and the whole thing is going be funded through the operating budget so every student throughout the district will see bigger classes, less extracurriculars and deferred maintenance on buildings.
And for what? No educational reason, just so a few kids don't have to take the bus!