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.

Jesus Christ 🤣🤣🤣.

Homosexuality and slavery are not on a par with you making a decision to send your weans to a school that’s not your local one.

Are you quite ok?

For sure, but over £1k? If it were a reasonable cost it would be okay. My mum doesn't remember how much my bus travel to school was, but she said that proportionally it was nothing like it is now

Probably because you went to your local school.

No, I was sent to the only Catholic school, a similar distance to the one DD has now. There was a secondary at the top of my road, but non-Catholic so we had to travel

Yes so it was your local Catholic school. Did you go to a Catholic primary?

It’s not that much more and I am happy to pay it. I have probably saved more in bus fares and prescription costs than I have paid in extra taxes.

Yes that was about 2 miles away, the secondary was the opposite side of the town. Not sure what you're getting at though? If bus travel were affordable, she'd get the bus, but as it is I can only work around 4hrs a day. I'm not saying it'd even need to be free, but it's too expensive to be feasible

by the time I get my state pension (later this year) I will have worked for 49 years.

speak for yourself, it costs me about £1500 a year extra in tax to live in Scotland than in England. It's £114.50 for a 12month prescription certificate in England and I don't use the bus more than 3 or 4 times a week, if that.

My mum doesn't drive and her bus pass is a god send for her. She's also far from rich. Until today in our area there was no fare cap and prices were ridiculous.

Lets face it, with the increasing number of obese children, most of them could do with the extra exercise.

I was just about to say the same thing...........How the fuck can it be compared with the prejudice hatred and in some cases violence that the gay community have faced.

Are you capable of comprehending a post properly? I wasn't at all suggesting that the issues were equivalent just that the fact that something exists in legislation doesn't mean it's automatically the morally correct or right thing to do. I used some extreme examples to show just how wrong legislation can be.

It's a bit desperate to purposely miscomprehend a post, make your own straw argument and then argue against it to try and undermine posters. It adds literally nothing to any debate by being so ridiculous

Pensioners are statistically more likely to be obese than kids

Are you ok? Where do I state they are equivalent issues? Nowhere because that's not the argument I'm making at all.

Your insistence that because something is backed by legislation then it must remain the same and never be challenged is plainly wrong. I used extreme examples to prove how blindly following rules and legislation and never raising concerns can lead us to terrible situations. I don't agree that little kids should be walking two miles to school. I don't care that legislation states this is OK, I don't agree with the legislation. I don't care if it's tiresome to you.

Sorry. Was just comparing me and my sons at school. We all went to Catholic primaries at walking distance then Catholic secondaries where we had to travel. They got transport as they were more than two miles away (dedicated bus) and I didn’t!

You’ll get free personal care!

I know!

free what??

You used extreme examples because you moan about money on every thread. Cut your cloth to fit!

Personal care at home if you need it.

Even this post makes no sense. What the old saying about arguing with people that drag you down to their level...

Aye you’re right. Thanks for reminding me that young men dying alone of aids and being blamed for it is on a par with paying 2k for a choice you’ve made and obviously can’t afford.

In my time in school transport it was always the people pretending to have money that caused the biggest fuss about paying for the weans they chose to have.

The only person even suggesting they are on a parr is you. I have never suggested such a thing. You have been corrected and you still spew out this weird, hateful narrative that doesn't align with what's actually been written. It feels that you just write stuff at random.

And your final paragraph is just stereotypes isn't it? How would you know if they were pretending to have money or actually had money? You don't have access to their bank account or a list of their investments. Just more rubbish not backed up by facts.

The fact is, I knew. Do you think we awarded transport based on SFA? We had their ADDRESSES which we used to see if their children qualified.

It’s not rocket science.