In yet another effort to help put Children First, Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein are strictly enforcing their bus policy. It's a well-known fact that rules must be adhered to, no matter how incomprehensible they may be (unless they're rules that protect working people, and they can all go to hell).
In any case, it's a rough world out there, and it's our job to prepare kids for it. This isn't the first stupid rule they've encountered, and it won't be the last. Give 'em a Metrocard, get 'em a subway map, and let 'em learn like we did. So what if they're five years old?
Did we have buses? Didn't it snow every day when we went to school? Didn't we have to walk 10 miles, uphill, shoveling the snow all the way? Didn't we have to walk 10 miles back, uphill again?
Does Joel Klein complain when he can't manage to charter a private aircraft to jet him to a blue-ribbon panel? Of course not. He knows simple first-class reservations will do. Grow up, New York!
We paid Alvarez and Marshall 15.8 million bucks to figure out how to save money, and if they say you can't get on the bus, you can't get on the bus. How are we gonna recover their fees if we squander our precious tax dollars transporting small children?
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein apologized for the inconvenience last night but defended the cuts.
"Of course everybody would like to have a bus. I understand that. Our job is to make sure the eligibility requirements by law are met, and they're done equitably and fairly," he said.
Still, some of the changes left parents baffled. Kerry Grasser's 7-year-old daughter is eligible for bus service to Public School 114 in Rockaway Park, Queens - but her 5-year-old daughter isn't.
Too bad. Rules are rules (unless they're rules that protect working people, and they can all go to hell).
"I had to imagine it was a mistake because you have two children coming from the same house and going to the same school," said Grasser, who is putting both children on the school bus anyway.
Clearly Ms. Grasser is laboring under a misconception, because if Chancellor Joel Klein says one of your daughters is eligible and the other isn't, I can only assume the eligibility line runs through your apartment, and the five-year-old is on the wrong side of it. Can't the five-year-old just sleep in the kitchen?
How on earth can Mayor Bloomberg continue to put Children First when adults can't even follow the rules? What sort of example does that set, anyway?
Thanks to Schoolgal
Related: Whatever you do, don't miss Joe Williams' take on this!
Posts
