Dear JCPS,
My name is KM, a freshman at Doss High School. I am for busing because some schools are better than other schools in JCPS. My neighborhood school would be Valley High School. I would not feel comfortable or safe going to Valley High School. I would not be safe or get the education I need.
There are many reasons why busing should continue. One main reason is desegregation and equal opportunity for public education. If we stop busing, people will go to schools where they don’t get a good education, and if they want to know and learn new material, they won’t be able to. Busing helps students be able to have a good education like many other students; we can’t have a good education if we go to a school that the state picked. If you go to a decent school, you’re more likely to learn better and have more information.
Many people say busing costs a lot of money. Typically, buses do take up a lot of money for gas. But, operating costs of compulsory busing are generally less than five percent of the school’s entire budget. In 1954. Brown v. Board of Education was the case that made integration possible. Louisville, Kentucky [did] not integrate until 1971, and they started busing.
My question is: We came this far from segregation and busing, so why would we go back to not letting it happen? Why should we? We are the new generation, we are free. In Keyes, he wrote that in an era of declining student achievement is wrong to turn the attention of communities “from the paramount goal of a quality in education to a perennially divisive debate over who is to be transported where.” This is saying that we should worry that every student is getting the education they deserve.
Of course, there’s two sides to every debate. If we continues to bus, there will be more complaints. When students get bused, some experience discrimination. Parents have to send their child(ren) out far to get a good education. Busing has students on the bus for hours at a time, they hardly ever get to do after school activities because the school is too far and they don’t have a ride.
If JCPS stops busing, it’d be violating the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment states everyone is equal. If you end busing, everyone wouldn’t be equal. If busing stops, not only are you denying race, but classifying by economic wealth. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
KM
