County School Buses for Private Schools

[Anonymous]

This is a great idea. I have to send my kids to private school because the public school we have to go to is horrible. So I get absolutely NOTHING for my tax dollar. If they pick up my kids then at least I'll get something out of the deal!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We pay for our bus service and it isn't cheap. We also drive to a bus stop that is central to a critical mass of families. This is the first year we have had bus service and I am very thankful for it and happy to pay for it. Our school uses its own buses.

And, this is how it should be done or if the school uses public school buses, they should be covering the full expense of running those buses. We are in private school and it is our choice not to use the public school (although in our situation it would have been a problem as we have special needs and needed a small classroom). I don't expect the county to transport my child (nor would I trust them but that is a different issue). If parents paid a fee to the public schools and choose not to use them, it would be different. Everyone pays for the public school system through our tax dollars (or those of us who pay taxes) - so those with grown kids, those with kids not school aged, and those without kids also have the burden of paying (which seems unfair to me). Except when the school system cannot meet a child's needs, the parent or school should take on the full cost of a private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great idea. I have to send my kids to private school because the public school we have to go to is horrible. So I get absolutely NOTHING for my tax dollar. If they pick up my kids then at least I'll get something out of the deal!!!

You could make your public school work. You just need a good teacher, especially in the early years. You can be at the worst school with the best teacher or the best school with the worst teacher. I'd choose the best teacher any day. You choose to live where you are living and choose not to use the school. You do not HAVE to send your child to private, you choose to, just like we choose to send our child to private. The public schools have taken away bus transportation in many areas this year. Those people should have the right to have it restored. We lost bus transportation this year to our public so those parents are now driving so this makes no sense to me to subsidize the private schools when you are taking benefits away from the public schools.

[Anonymous]

It is Montgomery County, not MCPS, that is suggesting this plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great idea. I have to send my kids to private school because the public school we have to go to is horrible. So I get absolutely NOTHING for my tax dollar. If they pick up my kids then at least I'll get something out of the deal!!!

You could make your public school work. You just need a good teacher, especially in the early years. You can be at the worst school with the best teacher or the best school with the worst teacher. I'd choose the best teacher any day. You choose to live where you are living and choose not to use the school. You do not HAVE to send your child to private, you choose to, just like we choose to send our child to private. The public schools have taken away bus transportation in many areas this year. Those people should have the right to have it restored. We lost bus transportation this year to our public so those parents are now driving so this makes no sense to me to subsidize the private schools when you are taking benefits away from the public schools.

I disagree. I went private because our school is bad. It doesn't matter if you have one good teacher. We took the chance and after 3yrs we had 2 okay teachers and one bad teacher. Add 25+ kids in a class each year and it was not working. Lots of bullying, goofing off, poor community involvement. My child is now in 8th and has half the kids in her class than my K in public has. And everyone of those kids works hard and wants to be there and it is infectious. It isn't cool to be stupid or the class clown. It is empowering to be smart and driven. So for some people private is the way to go, either with paying or financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have 1 kid in private and 1 in MCPS and I love driving my daughter to and from school. I highly doubt most parents are going to do this. You still have to drive them to a "bus stop" and wait there. Might as well just drive them all the way.

Same with my public school kids. I could walk them to the bus stop 45min before school starts or spend more time in the morning with them and drive them the half mile to school 5 minutes before school starts. If the morning is bright and warm, we walk and go to the playground first. We have a semi-busy road that gives us a bus. It is a total waste of time/energy IMO

Not all parents have to drive their kids to a stop.

The bus comes to our door, as I have two in elementary. Once they start middle/high, they will walk down the street to wait at a stop. The walk will take 5 minutes at most. It all depends on where your house is.

Furthermore, not all parents have the option of driving their kids to school due to their work schedule. Your schedule is a luxury, and I'm assuming that you either have a flexible work schedule or you don't work at all.

I don't know any elementary school that picks kids up door to door. Your bus stop may be closer but that is just you, not your whole neighborhood. And my point of the waste of busses is that the elementary school is less than a 0.5 mile from my house but because the street has a traffic light, we "have" to have a bus. Many students are designated walkers that walk, bike or get driven up to a mile to school. So all those parents don't have the luxury whether they want a bus or not. So I am not sure your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't know any elementary school that picks kids up door to door. Your bus stop may be closer but that is just you, not your whole neighborhood. And my point of the waste of busses is that the elementary school is less than a 0.5 mile from my house but because the street has a traffic light, we "have" to have a bus. Many students are designated walkers that walk, bike or get driven up to a mile to school. So all those parents don't have the luxury whether they want a bus or not. So I am not sure your point?

MCPS picks kids up at the door if there is no bus stop they can safely walk to.

And yes, MCPS provides bus transportation for elementary school students who have to cross a primary road on their way to school, unless there is a crossing guard. I agree that this is a waste, but the solution is not to cancel bus service. The solution is to make the streets safe for elementary school students to walk to school. MCPS can't do this - the transportation department has to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great idea. I have to send my kids to private school because the public school we have to go to is horrible. So I get absolutely NOTHING for my tax dollar. If they pick up my kids then at least I'll get something out of the deal!!!

This is incorrect. You get a public school system for your tax dollars, whether or not you actually use the public school system.

[Anonymous]

Like private school parents would ever allow their little darlings to ride on the bus with the public school kids.

[Anonymous]

We (parents) pay $200 per child each way to use the public school buses. This is the 1st time this program is being implmented and it is using buses that were sitting idle between bells for public schools.

There are 2-3 stops in our neighborhood going to one private school, whihc is approx 20 mins away.

They weighed the costs to the county vs the added traffic from private school parents.wear and tear on the roads and decided it was a good option. Private school parents have been asking for this for years. The county would not have done it if it didnt make sense for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great idea. I have to send my kids to private school because the public school we have to go to is horrible. So I get absolutely NOTHING for my tax dollar. If they pick up my kids then at least I'll get something out of the deal!!!

This is incorrect. You get a public school system for your tax dollars, whether or not you actually use the public school system.

You also get to live in a society of better educated citizens who can contribute more to society and the economy. Education is a public good, not a commodity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like private school parents would ever allow their little darlings to ride on the bus with the public school kids.

Way to stereotype private school parents. I bet you would be a little annoyed if a private school parent said "public school parents don't care about their kids"

Seriously, grow up and be a better role model for your kids.