How have school buses or lack thereof affected me in high school?

By: Tania Salceda

Senator Nancy Skinner is proposing that the state require enough school buses to provide transportation to and from school for ALL students. This policy needs to be implemented because something as simple as the lack of transportation can be a major obstacle to a student’s education. 

Why is Skinner’s bill so important to me? I have experienced first hand how much of an obstacle not having school bus transportation can be. In high school I lived within my school’s eligibility radius, yet the buses served only  5 neighborhoods, leaving me to walk about 40 minutes to make it to school. At times I was too tired from a night of studying to wake up early enough to make it to school on time at 8:00am. 

The lack of school transportation also prevented my involvement in the school’s extracurriculars. For example, in order to be in my high school’s mock trial team I was required to be in a Zero period class which meant I had to be on campus at 7:00am every day. For the first few days I attempted to walk to class but never made it on time. My mom saw the potential I had and knew how passionate I was about my role in Mock Trial so she decided to time her work break in order to pick me up and drop me off in time. Not all parents can do this, so I can only imagine how many students have missed out on opportunities because the lack of bus transportation provided by their school districts. As stated by Sen. Nancy Skinner “Getting to and from school should never be a barrier to student success.”