In an effort to convince students to go to their home schools, starting in the 2017-2018 school year, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) will not provide busing for students who are accepted to SDUSD schools through the Choice program.
According to Principal Jeff Olivero, “In April, transportation changed their policy and said that they were no longer offering any availability [for students] to ride the bus if they are Choice students. While they could if there was space before, now they are saying no more; you can’t ride, regardless, not even if you pay for it.”
VEEP (Voluntary Enrollment Exchange Program) students, on the other hand, may still ride the bus next year, for free if they are part of the Free and Reduced Lunch Program or by paying a fee if they are not. Vice Principal Michael Paredes explained: “The difference between VEEP and Choice is that with VEEP busing, there’s transportation included; with Choice, when you fill out the application, it does specifically say that you’re not guaranteed busing.”
“No transportation is offered through the School Choice Program,” states the online San Diego Unified School District website (sandiegounified.org).
“They blame us for not letting you all know in April. So partly, it was our fault, because we thought the new policy was just for incoming kids, not returning kids,” Olivero said. He continued, “Part of the movement within the district is to indirectly force kids to stay in their home schools.”
When Freshman Litzy Palafox was informed about the District’s decision to not provide busing for Choice students, she felt discouraged: “It makes me feel unworthy of coming here. I don’t think it’s fair to not offer busing just because I live in an area that VEEP doesn’t cover.”
Olivero explained why some students do not stay in their neighborhood schools: “Some think it’s safer [at another school], some think it’s a better education, and they all have different reasons for why they’re not going to their home schools.”
“The reason why Choice students don’t want to go to their neighborhood schools, to begin with, is because they want a better education or some other reason. They know they can do better at another school so they should be provided with the means to do so,” Junior Miranda Hernandez stated.
“The tendency is that Choice students tend to be more motivated, tend to be more on the ball, and their parents tend to be more involved. This is because they take the time to figure out the best option, fill out the paperwork, and do everything to get their kid to another school,” explained Olivero.
Olivero explained the School Board’s philosophy: “Whereas some of the kids who remain [at their neighborhood schools] are less motivated, the Board believes that if these kids and their parents stayed at their home schools, the home schools would be better schools. This is because the academically motivated would remain at their home schools and make them stronger schools.”
According to Paredes, many students at UC High depend on bus transportation: “The buses fill to capacity at about fifty-five, so around the ballpark of three hundred and fifty to four hundred students take the bus. Our enrollment is at about eighteen hundred, so about a quarter–just under a quarter–twenty to twenty-five percent of our students are bused in.”