ENDURING LONG SCHOOL BUS RIDES

Initially driven by school consolidation and later augmented by the mandate to desegregate, school busing systems have grown monumentally all over the United States. Busing policy choices have been made and expanded without regard to the impact on the central enterprise of schools, which is student learning. Anecdotes from Montana, the Navajo Reservation, West Virginia, and Colorado are presented to describe long bus rides and the hardships that accompany them. Research on busing is reviewed and found to be scarce and insubstantial. Two of the most recent researchers have found that busing could be considered exploitation of children's time, and that students with large average times on buses report lower grades, poorer levels of fitness, fewer social activities, and poor study habits. Knowing more about the effects of busing might lead to better choices about closing, maintaining, or opening new schools in rural areas. Three questions are recommended for further research: what is the impact of long bus rides (over 30 minutes each way) on children's success in school? what is the effect o