But forcing kids to walk to school will cause them to learn lessons that we never intend to teach them. When confronted with the prospect of carrying heavy book bags for extended walks to school, some children will opt to drop out. For others, absenteeism will increase. Some students will adapt by taking fewer courses, so they can have more study halls and tote fewer books home. Others will take less challenging courses with minimal outside-class preparation required. And in each case, the school district will have failed in its mission to educate our children to their fullest potential, because they erected a transportation barrier which will retard learning.

We build ramps and install elevators to remove physical barriers for students. We provide learning support and therapeutic support personnel to those who need them. And consider this: The cost of one LSS (learning support staff member) or one TSS (therapeutic support staff member) is greater than or equal to the entire annual “savings” realized by denying busing to hundreds of children. If we spend $20,000 for a support staff for one person, can we not spend another $20,000 to bus hundreds of children?

If we don’t eliminate the transportation barrier for every one of our children, then the failure to educate is ours. So let us provide every child with busing to and from school. If some students choose not to maximize their learning opportunities, then the failure is theirs.

There are nearly seven billion people on our planet. The vast majority of them are able to walk. But knowing how to walk is not the skill that will be needed to cope with the world to come.

Walking to school was acceptable in an era when a strong back and collective bargaining guaranteed a lifetime of steady, livable earnings. But those days have passed, and billions of Third World residents will assure that they will never return to our shores again.

So please bus all of our children to school. And while they’re in class, teach them that strong minds — not well-developed calves — are the tools that will prepare them to face tomorrow.

Roha is a former Meadville city councilman. He can be contacted at jroha@alltel.net.