The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round

On my way into work today I passed a SUV that had a half dozen kids of so in it, one of whom parents were taking them to school. A moment later I came to an intersection where a couple of dozen school buses pass by every morning. It got me thinking. Do we really need school buses anymore?

According to wiki the first school bus was a horse drawn wagon used in the 1820s. I can imagine at that time and in the 150 years following that a school bus was probably the only reasonable way to get children to school. Each community would typically only have 1 or 2 schools in the entire district and private transportation wasn't the norm. Today however nearly every family has at least 2 cars and there are schools everywhere. Within a 3 mile radius of my house there's probably close to a dozen different schools. It seems that the only reason we keep using school buses is because they're convenient and we expect the government to make things convenient for us. Imagine the cost savings that could be achieved by significantly cutting back on school bus transportation. People are always complaining about how schools never have enough money and teachers are woefully under paid. There's a ton of money tied up in the school transportation dept. that if we were simply willing to be responsible for getting our own kids to school would be free for those things. And not million dollar sports facilities and theater either, but that's another topic I guess.

Now I'm not saying all buses need to go. There are still some people who live in rural areas or poorer areas where the school bus is indeed a necessity. There are school activities like field trips and sport team transportation that needs to be continued. However, I think we could save a ton of money by simply taking our own kids to school and not relying on big brother. I mean really, think about the insurance, fuel, employee, maintenance and on and on. Just the other week there was another story on the news about how a kid hid in the back of the bus and the driver missed him and was sued for "leaving" him on the bus all day. It seems to me the school bus is an idea whose time has come and should be nearly gone.