Minneapolis Public Schools are considering ending yellow bus transportation for high school students and instead giving students a Go-To card that will allow them to ride city buses. The proposal sparked a lively discussion in both the MPS parent forum and the E-Democracy forum. Though the cards have been a success in a small preliminary test with the members of the Minneapolis Youth Congress, some still insist that universal use of public transportation by high school students would have more harmful than beneficial effects.
The official MPS site lists several points as a rationale for supporting the proposal:
- Provides more academic opportunities for after-school activities.
- Supports a flexible schedule for high school students
- Provides student access to community resources and real-world learning opportunities
- Positively impacts student retention when paired with Check & Connect program
- Teaches students how to use public transportation
If students have Go-To cards, they can ride the bus home after sports or tutoring or play practice or any other after-school activities. They could also use the Go-To cards to get to and from after-school jobs, to attend Post Secondary Educational Option classes at local universities, and for any other travel.
On the other hand, MPS parent Mary Hanson, writing on MPS Forum, listed reasons that she opposes the plan:
1. It doesn’t make any kind of fiscal sense to go to this plan …
2. Many many kids (mine included) will be starting high school with NO city bus experience, and the thought of thousands of newbie ninth graders out wandering the city, sometimes transferring downtown, or in places they are not familiar with sounds like a recipe for disaster. …
3. It creates all sorts of equity issues, as we know that in our very segregated city, bus service is safer in some areas, walking is safer in some neighborhoods, and many kids in more affluent homes will be given a car at age 16 to drive themselves to school. …
4. I asked what about the issue of kids who lose their Go-To card or have them stolen. They said in the pilot program the teens had to pay $10 to replace it. That creates a few problems in my mind, one is that some families can’t afford to pay replacement costs …
5. With bus times out of the control of the district, would tardy kids still be counted? If the yellow bus is late, tardiness is excused, how would this work with a city bus?
Hanson’s first point is supported by the MPS cost analysis, which shows increased district cost under almost any scenario. (Students, of course, would also receive increased benefit, as they could use the Go-To cards at any time, to travel anywhere in the metro area.)
MPS parent Andrea Breen responding to Hanson on MPS Forum, spelled out reasons to move to the Go-To cards:
This is truly about equity and high school reform. …
We are talking about 67% of our high school students who live in poverty. We are talking about access to tutoring, making up work, extra help and classes. Access to teachers and extra curriculars. Even more exciting we are talking about the possibility of real high school reform. We are talking about all kids having more options as we could potentially offer more classes since we will not be limited by a start and end time. …
I would highly encourage you to give your child the opportunity to gain some experience on the buses. My 7th and 10th grade daughters take the city bus. It is a great way to teach independence and gives some freedom to you as a parent as well. Public transportation in our city is not the best but it does work, it is safe and pretty easy. …
The reality is that for some kids the bus time would be longer for some shorter. For some kids their bus stop would be closer some (although I am betting very few) further away. My daughter’s bus time would grow but she would have to walk one block instead of 8 to her bus stop. Some kids will have to transfer and take two buses to school. There are kids now who attend charter schools in St. Paul or St. Paul Conservatory of the Arts and live in Minneapolis many of them take two or three buses to get there. That might just be the reality for some kids. It is not a horrible thing.
The MPS district is currently conducting a survey to gather feedback and community opinion. Click here to go to the survey.
[NOTE: MPS Forum comments are republished with permission from the authors.]
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