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 like this idea tbh!

Amazing, maybe you could try to make your posts relevant to what I'm writing then.

I have...

I do too, who wouldn't? Everyone gets everything.

I also like the idea of everyone getting social housing, a massive pension and enough to go on holiday every year to somewhere nice.

I do agree that after factoring in housing costs £17000 to £19000 can give a very reasonable standard of living but I don’t agree that all pensioners are rolling in money. There are poor people and well off people in all age groups. I do agree that times are very hard for some young families

That’s £10.53 per school day! Isn’t it cheaper to share a lift or taxi with some school friends? Or cycle some of the way?

Is it a private school bus company then?

This!! It's what people don't understand when they hark back to their school days. These days, there aren't lots of schools within easy walking distance of home. The smaller ones have been closed and huge schools built instead which almost by definition are going to be further away from where most pupils live. In the town where I grew up, there used to be 3 secondary schools, now there's just one "super-sized" school instead.

I agree. I went to a crap comp. Started as a straight A pupil leaving primary school. After 5 years I left without a single qualification. That was due to the continual disruption and extreme daily bullying I suffered that turned me right off school due to daily abuse, assault, property damage/theft, etc. It was only after leaving that hell hole that I took it on myself to get my education back on track by doing evening classes/day release from a crap low paid menial job, to first get O and A levels and then take the chartered accountancy exams. To say that kids come out stronger from a crap comp is unbelievably patronising and naive. It very nearly killed me as I was suicidal at times due to the bullying. All it did was knock several years of my life whilst I was spending all my spare time studying in evenings and weekends to catch up the five wasted years.

There might be enough places if all the children from the good school leave because attainment levels start to drop because children from the bad school have joined. I don't agree that the good schools are good entirely because they attract the best teachers. I'm not sure that is much of a factor at all tbh. It's mostly down to the academic ability of the pupils and their parents ime. And yes, I have been to bad schools as well as good ones (I moved a lot as a child).

Our education ststem is designed so a percentage of children will fail GCSEs. Tjey aren't pass/fail exams.

That must have been a terrible school.

Research suggests a decent chunk of teachers avoid high FSM schools. Obviously the best teachers who are most able to pick and choose the schools they work in are more likely to be the better teachers or those that work in shortage subjects.
https://strategyeducation.co.uk/what-kind-of-school-do-teachers-prefer-to-work-in/

Academic ability should be factored into Progress 8 scores. Children shouldn't see a drop between leaving primary school and leaving high school. Some schools in deprived areas have positive progress 8 scores so it can't all be about parents or raw ability.

It was and still is. It's constantly in and out of special measures and has been for the 40+ years since I left it. Parents do everything they can to avoid their kids going there, leaving the kids from parents who don't care. There's a fleet of coaches from the town taking the kids to the next nearest school across the county border to avoid it!

Such a shame as it was actually a well regarded grammar school until the mid 70s when the nearby "sec mods" were wound down and then closed, and it was massively expanded to take in the ex sec-mod pupils, and then the rot set in. It converted a couple of years before I joined, and you could see the deterioration year by year as the numbers grew, with ex grammar teachers leaving in droves having nervous breakdowns, more and more vandalism and grafiti, as the years passed, etc.

Yes, there are some who avoid schools in areas if deprivation but there are also those who enjoy a challenge. It's not all about parents or raw ability but a lot is. Where I live the schools that do well despite being in deprived area often have a high immigrant population who value education so parental influence not necessarily particularly good teaching.

I have not RTWT, but just seeing the title annoyed me as it was obviously pensioner bashing again.
Why could you not have started with the premise that school children, as well as pensioners, should get free bus fare? Instead you had to knock pensioners. Most well off pensioners drive so do not use a bus pass. Those who use the bus are largely on a low income. If you can afford £2000 fares to send your DC to your preferred school, you are better off than low income pensioners.

That’s two months income for someone on the new state pension.

No, school children should walk and combat the obesity crisis.

That said, I suppose if it's miles and miles away somewhere rural, then perhaps subsidised travel but not free.

“Where I live the schools that do well despite being in deprived area often have a high immigrant population who value education so parental influence not necessarily particularly good teaching.”

I have seen this on many threads now about how well immigrant children can do and how hard they work in schools, including some quite challenging schools.
So their parents work hard mostly (if given the opportunity) and they do too, and yet so many Brits who are lazy and don’t give a fuck about their kids education want the immigrants out?
Please let it make sense!

So not only are immigrants supposedly undermining wages, now their children are undermining white British kids too? Is that what this is all really about?

It IS held against adults I have been told on two seperate threads now that i shouldnt be in social housing (not even the small one bedroom flat that i am in) because i dont have kids.

A friend of mine who is 70 got a visit from Adult Social Care recently about disability adaptations He was told "you have a car so you can access the community" Now i do think that Dunelm or Tesco would take a dim view of him driving through their window and around their stores. He has been refused storage for a mobility scooter by his HA so will continue to drive Luckily his driving is exemplary as he used to do it for a living. He cant walk to the bus stop as its too far away He has been waiting for seven years for a knee replacement and while waiting his other knee is now fucked as well because more pressure was put on that due to avoid putting pressure on the bad one. This was caused by manual work not sitting on his arse behind a desk First he delivered tyres for a very well known company then TVs WAY BEFORE flatscreens If pensioners are going to be told "you have a car so you can access the community" then they may think Fuck it then I will keep driving!!!

It would be good to have up to date links instead of ones over 10 years old.

What’s the point in saving for your pension then?

Feel free to find them. Do you think housing costs have increased or decreased in the last decade for those that don't own their own homes without a mortgage? Do you think the triple locked pension has increased faster than earned income?

You misunderstand my point. I'm talking about people arguing to adults that as their parents chose to have them then the state should have no responsibility to fund them. This would be seen as ridiculous as adults are clearly desperate entities to their parents and had no control over their parents decision. The same goes for kids though too ultimately. People seem to think they can punish parents for having kids by not supporting children properly. If this carried on until adulthood then the argument would be that you shouldn't have social housing as your parents could and should house you if you can't house yourself.

I’m not that invested. I’m 62 and have never compared myself with pensioners in my life.

Or anyone tbh. Happy with my lot.

Do you mean renters or those who have a mortgage?

Don’t know regarding the triple lock as I don’t get the state pension which is, imo, woefully low.