School buses and Global Warming

I read an item in another blog --
http://thoughtsonglobalwarming.blogspot.com/2007/09/largest-american-school-bus-fleet-to.html
that one of our local school bus fleets is converting to biodiesel, which is supposed to be a great thing. But I have a more fundamental question: Why have we allowed school districts to deploy their school facilities in ways that require so much busing?

The disctrict I live in, Dist.103 in Lyons, Stickney, and Brookfield, used to have a school in each neighborhood, so no student lived more than 5 or 6 blocks from a school. My kids walked to school until they entered high school.

Then, a few years ago, the district did a whole bunch of remodeling (with hefty tax increases that they lied about the costs of, and used their students to arm-twist the community in support of, using them as unwilling unpaid political lobbyists). They turned our nearest school into a middle school, and moved the lower grades to other schools. The result is that nowadays, almost every student has to be bused to school and our quiet community is clogged with hordes of school buses each morning and afternoon.

They told us at the time that this was to better serve the students by giving them more appropriate facilities and programs, blah blah blah. I think it was to seve the bureaucracy of the district better and became a self-justifying financial commitment that will be with us indefinitely.

All the kids in the district still have a school within walking distance; most of them just can't go there because they're in the wrong grade. And the middle school has become a miniature version of the suburban warehouses/prison camps that pass for high schools these days.

And the diesel fumes waft into the chilly air as the buses run all night to be ready for school the next morning.

And the kids are struggling with obesity, while the school district officials whine that unless we agree to give them ever-increasing wads of money, they're going to be "forced" to cut physical edication programs.Or else make the kids sell gift wrap door to door. While the superintendent makes a whole lot more money than I do and appears to work about half as hard.

Next time I'll lay into those "street blimps" downtown as a pet peeve in the global warming dustup. Having a truck drive around an already crowded downtown area, burning fuel and clogging the streets, in order to advertise a Hummer dealer in the suburbs, strikes me as outstandingly decadent. Particularly when the mayor is talking about a "toll" to enter the downtown area with your car in order to get to work, and the transit system crumbles amid endless dickering and tax increases.