Free school transport

Because as you said there are certain exceptions and circumstances where it’s necessary.

I was just responding to the previous poster. Their message came across (to me anyway) that it was a bad thing that most children don’t get free transport. I was just curious as to why people think that they should

Most don't HTH.

Do you think the vast majority of children should get free transport? If so, why?

Why should the taxpayer pay to get other people’s children to school?

That’s why the vast majority of children don’t get transport.

Completely agree OP.

My view is that it is the parents’ responsibility to get their children to school, part of the cost of having children, why should the tax payer pay for it?

I di agree there are a handful of exceptions but, in the main, it is the parents’ responsibility.

I wouldn’t feel jealous of the free transport. I’ve put a just turned 4 year old on a school bus on her first day at school. We’ve waited in the howling wind and pouring rain at the end of a farm track for buses that didn’t come. And then had to wait ages for the replacement bus to arrive after a few phone calls to find out what’s wrong. I’ve stood at the end of the track at home time for buses that haven’t arrived starting to worry where my children are.
I rarely see the teachers or other parents.
The major advantage is it does save me over 100 miles of diesel every week. But it is as time consuming as the school run because it’s not door to door. We live at the end of a long track.

Ds is entitled to the free bus for his school because he is in the nearest one that can meet his needs. At the moment we don't use the bus because Dh is able to take him to school but once all 3 boys start school we will have no choice but to use the bus has they will be in 3 different schools.

But surely most of the village being bussed on masse chose to live there? What's the difference?

My DDs got free school transport as they were Forces children who had no choice where they lived and the nearest school with space could ve miles away. If it was under 2 miles, we didn't get transport.

Nothing to be jealous about though...boo you really want to wave your 4yo off on on a bus each day, and never see her teacher? Or have your 8yo expected to leave school, cross the road and walk down it to try to find her taxi driver by herself? Both scenarios we faced

was expecting this to be questioning why all children in the uk don’t get free bus transport to school as per other countries! I think it’s madness. Everyone driving clogs up roads, causes pollution, is usually to women’s detriment etc etc. That's what we should all be questioning

Not everyone can choose where they live and even when they can they're still limited by house prices. Yes children are entitled to free transport if it's not safe or if they have send which makes them unable to walk the distance.

I'm aware of that thanks.
Twas responding to the OP saying if there was no free transport parents would simply get in the car and drive them.
But obviously lots of people can't do that. Thank goodness I live rurally and the majority of kids go on the free buses 😁
high school more than 3 miles away, primary school no pavement for 1 mile

I'm wondering now why my secondary school had a school bus. The village was two and a half miles from the school, pavement the whole way (or you could use the cycleway that used the route the old railway line took).

I wonder now if it's because the sheer number of us was too much for public transport and they didn't want parents driving because of the congestion and the location of the school meaning there was nowhere nearby to drop off.

Unfortunately that would get you nowhere in an admission appeal or a transport appeal. We once had an appeal where the mother had a genuinely awful trek between schools for her children, which was completely impractical. Neither qualified for transport because each school was under the statutory distance. It just happened that the schools were in opposite directions. We still had to refuse the appeal because it was an infant class size appeal and there is no legal wiggle room.

It won’t be happening for much longer. The country’s almost bankrupt, there’s a massive financial crash on the way and this sort of funding will be the first to be cut.

This will really wind you up ... there is no high school within 3 miles of our village. Most of the village kids get a free bus to the nearest school. But as my kids go to a church school in the opposite direction, the council provide them with a free bus pass to use on the regular bus routes.

Of all the ridiculous things our tax bills pay for, this really is small fry. And it's far better for the environment than all the parents driving kids to and from school every day.

I don’t think it would ever occur to me that it should be someone else’s responsibility to get my child to school.

We live in an area where a significant number of children need to be bused to school because they live rurally, and there are many different routes for each secondary schools - many of them live on farms and their parents are farmers.
Believe it or not, on the Scottish Islands some children even get ferries to school, daily or weekly (weekly ones stay in hostels during the week).

We are just over 3 miles from my dc 's secondary school so fortunately they had a place on the free bus.
I wouldnt be surprised if they started means testing this in the future. Provide the bus service but most parents have to pay.

With a child in primary and secondary in opposite directions which child would you choose to be dropped off late/picked up late every day? In a 1 parent household that would be my reality if there wasn't a bus provided to our nearest school.

Of course the responsible adult might not have time to walk 2 miles then back and get to work. So they have to drive. In this case they should have bought a house 2.5 miles instead to avoid the school run.