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Long bus rides impede family time

3 min read

To the editor:

This letter is to inform people of the problem with the education system here in Lee County.

Some of the bus routes have taken an excess of two hours or more. Our local media has asked for answers from our school board members with no avail. This has been an ongoing battle for almost two months now. They have asked the members to go for a ride on any of those routes, to experience first hand, the problems and the dangers that stem from the long bus ride, and the early hours these very young children are waiting in the dark for the buses to pick them up. Only one member agreed to take the ride, Robert D. Chilmonik. After the ride, which was actually just a trip behind the bus, as he was not permitted to actually ride, he agreed their was a problem.

Six-year-olds standing outside in the dark waiting for a bus, because it takes two hours to get to school. Then add another two-hour bus ride home, get home, do homework, take a bath, eat dinner, and time for bed. Where is the quality family time? There isn’t any. To have family time, something would have to be cut out, or at the very least cut back.

Can’t take away dinner, have to take a bath, or what about less sleep? A good night’s sleep helps them at school, so you can’t take that away. How about homework?

Can’t do that, it defeats the whole purpose of school and sleep. Well, that only leaves one thing… family time. Oh, wait, that is important for the child’s development.

So now that we have brought these facts up to our school board members, all they have to say is it’s more cost effective to do it this way. But when I looked at some facts from Florida department of education, I found we spend here in Lee County an excess of $28 million a year on busing. Wouldn’t that $28 million be better spent investing into our schools and the children instead of out the tail pipe of a bus?

Being born and raised on Pine Island, I now ask my home community for its help and support, as I created a facebook group called (Lee County Florida Parents for better education )

Please join and help fight for better schools for our children.

Don Armstrong

Pine Island