Livonia Schools to end buses for High School

[EMG]

Classic illustration why only pathetic, repugnant losers need government help. Government stops giving you a ride to school? Turn to family, friends, ride a bicycle, walk. Can't get to school? [[In Canada I walked a mile-and-a-half, uphill, both ways, in driving sleet and snow, a miserable accident of topography and meteorology, plus, I had to go home for lunch, then come back again). If you can't get to school without government help, your family thinks you suck, you have no friends, and you're too lazy to get off your fat, pimply arse.

While I think that's stated in a far more abrasive manner than necessary, I wholeheartedly agree with and endorse the underlying logic. The moral onus of providing for the needs of children lies with their own parents and families - not the taxpayer. If people aren't able to or can't afford to care for their own children, they shouldn't be having them in the first place.

[texorama]

That, and a good deal of Ann Arbor is pretty walkable.

It wouldn't be such a big deal if kids were going to school within a mile of their homes. But it seems that we've grown accustomed to building large, centralized, and sprawling school campuses along main highways that resemble prisons more than educational institutions. If the kids could walk to school safely, you wouldn't need the damned buses in the first place.

The elementary schools in Ann Arbor are pretty walkable, but the middle schools aren't [[the map is a patchwork), and the high schools, except for Pioneer, are built in completely unwalkable places just like in any suburb. The city buses are not a workable solution, either--they don't run frequently enough, or with enough capacity, to serve a large high school.

[DetroitPlanner]

Doesn't the school district also contract the 'Livonia Transit' buses from the City itself? This could run into some major headaches for not just the District, but for the City as well.

[Trainman]

The people who support bus service reductions are mostly white supremacists. They want you to vote YES for the SMART Property Tax Renewal next August, so they can siphon off all the money from the state tax on fuel for themselves.

Livonia Transit gets no money from the federal and state governments from fuel taxes and Detroit could soon lose over $70 Million per year in state CTF fuel tax money, if my webpage does not get well known. So, watch your wallets and limited transportation tax dollars and save for a car, just in case your city is next.

[Sarah]

Granholm is having a presser at 4 about the school funding cuts. Apparently she'll restore the pro-rata cuts.

[9mile&seneca]

Looks like "telecommuting" to school may be the next move. Look out teachers. You may be kissing those contracts good bye in the future.

If only that were true...hard to provide babysitting service that way.

[DetroitDad]

If only that were true...hard to provide babysitting service that way.

We usually pay one of the high school kids to baby sit.

[MichMatters]

While I think that's stated in a far more abrasive manner than necessary, I wholeheartedly agree with and endorse the underlying logic. The moral onus of providing for the needs of children lies with their own parents and families - not the taxpayer. If people aren't able to or can't afford to care for their own children, they shouldn't be having them in the first place.

LOL! Those damned, socialist public schools, with their fancy and unnecessary taxpayer funding and their damned commie busing systems. If people aren't able, or can't afford, to educate their own children in the confines of their home, they shouldn't be having them in the first place.

Oh, and down with those nasty, socialist freeways and their commie surface road counterparts. If you're two legs, or your privately-owned automobile, can't get your everywhere you need to go, you might as well just lay down and die, you scum.

Oh, yeah, muslim president, birth certificate, buy gold, mouth-breathing, and so forth and so on.

[reddog289]

Lj is right about the situation in the Wayne/Westland district about the area. Yet I do see quite a few high schoolers get off the bus from Wayne High. As for the Livonia schools I got caught up in traffic around Franklin HS when I worked in Livonia. I learned not to drive down Joy Rd around that time.
There is no easy fix to alot of problems. You get rid of the buses, Then you will have a problem with tardiness/absenteism.

[ziggyselbin]

The elementary schools in Ann Arbor are pretty walkable, but the middle schools aren't [[the map is a patchwork), and the high schools, except for Pioneer, are built in completely unwalkable places just like in any suburb. The city buses are not a workable solution, either--they don't run frequently enough, or with enough capacity, to serve a large high school.

You are completely wrong about the middle schools. Every one is in a neighborhood and certainly walkable_ I see it every day.

The buses run every twenty min [[AATA) and there are bus stops at or very near every school. But you may have kids/students in the district and have 1st hand experience.

[j to the jeremy]

You are completely wrong about the middle schools. Every one is in a neighborhood and certainly walkable_ I see it every day.

The buses run every twenty min [[AATA) and there are bus stops at or very near every school. But you may have kids/students in the district and have 1st hand experience.

You are right about AATA buses. At certain times students can ride them for free with a student ID.

The middle schools are in neighborhoods, but their districts sprawl and disconnect across many main roads. When I was growing up there, I took the bus to middle school, because it would have taken upwards of an hour to get there on foot, and across several main roads.

Does anyone know how the Livonia school board voted on this one?

[wazootyman]

That, and a good deal of Ann Arbor is pretty walkable.

It wouldn't be such a big deal if kids were going to school within a mile of their homes. But it seems that we've grown accustomed to building large, centralized, and sprawling school campuses along main highways that resemble prisons more than educational institutions. If the kids could walk to school safely, you wouldn't need the damned buses in the first place.

Some districts might fit the 'large, centralized, and sprawling school campuses along main highways' model, but for the most part, Livonia schools [[especially elementary schools) were built to be neighborhood schools. In fact, I walked to my middle school, and probably could have walked to my high school.

Many elementary schools have been closed due to reduced enrollment, but even today you can see that they're in the midst of neighborhoods:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/CG...s_104308_7.pdf

[[for those not familiar with Livonia, the area between I-96 and Plymouth Rd. is industrial zoned, hence the reason for no schools).

[gnome]

According to this article the bus lovers got their wish. The school board cut 85 teachers instead.

http://www.hometownlife.com/article/...notices+for+83

The Livonia school board Wednesday approved layoff notices for 83 members of the district’s teachers union, the result of mid-year cuts in state funding.

Board President Lynda Scheel said an estimated 20-25 will actually be laid off, effective Jan. 29.

By contract, the board has to give members of the Livonia Education Association facing potential layoff at least 30 days notice so it approves layoff notices for more employees than will actually be laid off and then calls back as many as it can.
...

[MikeM]

Hey, look on the bright side: They saved 85 bus driver jobs!

[j to the jeremy]

No easy decisions these days...

[Danny]

Oh well! Those Livonian kids might as well carpool with their friends, parents and relatives to get to high school. Or better yet have the parents move to another Livonia neighborhood near their high school so that they can walk to school and home.