School children should receive free bus travel before pensioners?

[Itchthescratch]

My child is starting a school where it will cost around £2k for bus travel. This school is local and one of the closest schools to us. The other schools close to us are much worse in terms of opportunities and academic outcomes. I can afford the bus fare easily but I worry that some poorer families will really struggle to send their children to the higher achieving school because of the cost.

I understand that there isn't an endless pot of money but surely it would make sense to give school children free travel ahead of other groups like pensioners? School children are statistically much more likely to suffer from poverty (child poverty is almost double pensioner poverty)and it seems crazy that we aren't supporting social mobility whilst we let all pensioners travel for free on buses.

I thought Labour had introduced a cap on bus fares of £2.00?

I think if you choose to send your child to a school that is not their nearest then it is up to you to pay to get them there if you don't want them to walk.

In Manchester a single journey for kids is £1 but will be free from January.

My DS is at his nearest school but has to pay as we live less than three miles from the school (just).

Oh, those pesky older people... 🙄

People of all ages need to travel. Not just the young.

No but it answers what the op is discussing. Why would we provide bus transport to schools a mile away? Its bad for ths environment.

Then the safety arguments are rubbish then. If it's not engaging older people to use the busses then what's the point?

Bus transport exists and isn't full. It's no worse for the environment if more poor kids can use it.

Well, yes, quite frankly. How could it not be? It carries all sorts of assumptions about older people and how they're perceived in society.

Enlighten us, then...? 🤔

You’re still framing this as a single pot of money with a single tap, and that’s not how public budgeting works in practice. Yes, everything ultimately comes from taxation, but that doesn’t mean every scheme is in direct competition with every other scheme. If that were true, we’d have to argue that funding for potholes comes at the expense of cancer treatment. It’s simply not how budgets are structured.

The older person’s bus pass isn’t a “nice-to-have” perk for wealthy 65‑year‑olds. It’s a mobility and isolation‑prevention measure. A very large proportion of people in their mid‑60s and early‑70s have mobility issues, chronic conditions, or have stopped driving. Many rely on buses for medical appointments, shopping, and basic independence. Removing that support doesn’t magically create a school transport budget, it just creates a different social problem.
School transport, meanwhile, is a local authority responsibility. The £2k cost you’re talking about is a result of how your council contracts school routes, not because pensioners elsewhere can use a bus pass after 9:30am. These two things are not funded from the same operational pot, nor do they compete in the way you’re suggesting.

You’re trying to frame this as “choose the poorest group”, but that’s not the actual trade‑off. You don’t reduce child poverty by making older people housebound. You fix child poverty and school transport by addressing the specific policies that govern those areas.

If you want to argue for subsidised school transport, that’s a perfectly valid discussion, but it sits within education and local transport policy, not within a moral contest between children and pensioners.

Just to clarify one point, the older person’s bus pass isn’t given at 65. It’s linked to State Pension age, which is currently 66 and rising. So the idea that lots of “younger pensioners at 65” are getting free travel isn’t accurate. Are you honestly arguing that pensioners at age 66+ can walk as far as school kids - because, if so, tell me where you live and I am moving there, there must be something in the water?

That aside, the wider issue still stands: school transport and the older person’s bus pass aren’t competing schemes. They’re funded and justified differently, and removing one doesn’t automatically fund the other. If your council is charging £2k for a local school route, that’s a problem with how school transport is organised - not with pensioners using buses after 9:30am.

Start campaigning then OP. Maybe by the time you get to pension age they will have removed it and then you can moan because you dont have a free bus pass. You will say you won't, but you will.
You sound as though you are the kind of person who lacks empathy for any other group of people in a different stage of life than the one you are in in at this moment.

My children were born in an age when we had to pay all nursery fees, free school meals for infant age children didn't exist and we paid bus fares for children to go to school. Children cost money!

Ask this question again when you are a pensioner

Teacher here
I worked for a long time at a secondary that would be described as tough / rough. It was a small borough but there were several neighbouring boroughs which were more affluent and therefore got better results. So the kids from the "better" families went out of the borough and the children from the "rougher" families went to our school. So guess what happened to our results ? They never went up. So the next set of "better" parents look at the exam results and decide to send their children to the school in the next borough. And so it goes on

The threshold is 3 miles for children over 8. And it’s measured ‘as the crow flies’ which doesn’t take into account the terrain or conditions of that walk.
It’s not feasible for every child to walk to their nearest school. For my child and others in my village it would involve hiking conditions 😂😂
Or an extra mile detour.

Children from low income families can already use it up to 6 miles away.... unless you live in a very remote area (where transport is typically provided) why would we need to bus them further?

Op wants to be able to pick & choose to have her child bussed to a school further away.

On a systemic level this is bad. It creates sink schools avoided by local parents, and harms the most vulnerable.

You aren't getting it. Pensioner passes are funded by a combination of local and national taxation. There is absolutely no reason that the exact same mechanism couldn't be used to fund free travel for children. It doesn't need to come from education or local authority pots. You can use national grants and local top ups in the exact same way.

My kids walked 3 miles to senior school took them about 40 mins. They walked a mile and and a half to primary school from the age of 4 and that took about 25 minutes if they weren't distracted by cats, dogs or various other random things. If it was raining or they were particularly tired we might have got the bus but majority of the time it was walking

In Scotland under 25s get free bus travel. Great! Trouble making teenagers are travelling miles to shopping centers and other towns and causing nothing but trouble. No intention of buying anything. Its gangs of them. Blooming awful. Free school bus pass, certainly but definitely not unlimited.

Not all low-income families are eligible for FSMs and they are therefore not eligible for this transport.

I can easily pay the £2k so will always be able to pick and choose. It's not my kids I'm worried about.

Thank you!

Everyone talking about easy 3 mile routes and assuming everyone is the same

No, you are the one that is not getting it, you’re still treating this as a single pot of money where every pound spent on one group is automatically taken from another, and that simply isn’t how public finance works. Different schemes are funded for different policy reasons, with different eligibility rules and different social outcomes. They don’t compete in the direct, one‑for‑one way you’re insisting.

And just to be clear: the older person’s bus pass isn’t handed out at 65. It’s tied to State Pension age, currently 66 and rising, and a very large proportion of people in that bracket do have mobility issues, chronic conditions, or have stopped driving. The idea that “most 65‑year‑olds can walk fine so mobility isn’t relevant” doesn’t reflect reality.

You’re also overlooking the fact that the older person’s bus pass is designed to prevent isolation, maintain independence, and reduce pressure on health and social care. Removing it doesn’t magically create a school transport budget — it just creates a different problem somewhere else.

School transport costs are a local authority contracting issue. The £2k you’re talking about is the result of how your council organises and funds school routes. That’s where the pressure point is. Pensioners using buses after 9:30am isn’t what’s driving that cost.

You’re trying to frame this as “pick the poorest group”, but that’s not the actual trade‑off. You don’t improve child poverty by making older people housebound. If you want to argue for subsidised school transport, that’s a perfectly valid discussion - but it sits within education and local transport policy, not within a moral contest between children and pensioners. How many times do I have to make this distinction to you,

Equally I know a lot of teachers that won't stay in the kind of school you describe. Anyone decent would move to other schools with less challenges. Hence you end up often with questionable staff at the school and all sorts of other issues. Parents aren't the only problem and it's too much to ask them to sacrifice on the alter of idealism.

I've applied. but we don't get higher rate mobility, which seems to be the criteria. he has autism but mainstream school etc. thankfully there's a s hook bus altho you pay normal fare so I'll walk home mto the bus stop and collect him from, but it's 5 minutes either way so we'll build up to him doing it alone. far different to the concept of several miles where he will get sidetracked, lost, distracted etc.

Well it's not an either or, but I agree that children shouldn't have to pay bus fares for school. I wish we had those nice yellow school buses you see in American films.

But that problem doesn’t go away with free bus travel. Some children will still have to go to that school.

Better to concentrate on improving school standards and get kids just to go to their nearest school.