School Transport v School Meals – a battle for hearts, minds and money
School meals and school transport are subjects that the government claims are close to its heart, but the gap between rhetoric and reality seems to be widening in terms of school transport. The problems with getting students to and from school safely are well understood, it’s just that little seems to be happening. This is not an area that has attracted a high profile media champion like Jamie Oliver and the debate over school meals. Although it is quite ironic that it is Jools Oliver who said, ‘Not everybody has the luxury of living close enough to walk to school’, and who supports the Schools Travel Action Group (STAG) who are protesting Camden Council’s decision to scrap special permits for parents dropping their children at school by car. STAG’s vociferous members, who recently staged a protest outside the council’s offices, can hardly claim this is a new issue as the consultation stretches back several years with the phase-out having begun back in 2003 (complete removal is not due until 2008).
So is school transport more deserving of serious government attention than school meals? According to one school bus operator (who spoke on the condition of anonymity), ‘I have never heard of a student dying from poor school meals but they actually do die from poor school transport’. Research by the Sutton Trust shows that the school run leads directly to 40 deaths and 900 serious injuries each year as well as adding two million tonnes of extra carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. School transport is also not an isolated issue because it relates to other key educational issues such as obesity and school admissions. It’s also an economic issue, with the school run contributing to almost 20% of morning peak-hour congestion.
The Education Act (1996) sets out appropriate walking distances for students that are up to two miles for five to eight year-olds and up to three miles for students older than eight (who attend the nearest suitable school). The reality is that few parents would be willing to allow a five to eight year-old to walk two miles to school even if accompanied. Much the same goes for public transport, which even when free, is not seen as a safe or viable option by many parents.
So what is the solution? Free public transport, walking buses, cycling and car sharing are part of the solution, but if there are to be serious inroads made into this issue then according to the Sutton Trust’s research, buses are the key mode of transport that needs to be expanded. Whether these are US-style yellow buses or simply dedicated school buses is irrelevant. What is inescapable is that more buses are needed, there needs to be innovation in working out how to fund them and the whole issue needs to have as much, if not more political attention than school meals.
Is this likely to happen? In our media-centric society probably not until there is a celebrity of significant stature to lead this campaign. The list of possible candidates is short - it’s unlikely that Jeremy Clarkson or his ilk would ever put their heads above this parapet!
Unfortunately, the issue is about far more than money and reaches right into the heart of politics and the concept of joined-up government. For example, it’s all very well for Camden to rescind the parking permits and to have a green ideology that advocates walking and public transport, but they go too far when they say that parents should send their children to the nearest school as to do otherwise is environmentally irresponsible. Parents are far more interested in their child’s education than the green agenda or Camden council or the Labour party. Bus operators also point out that council themselves are an obstacle because they often refuse to create special drop off and pick up locations for students within their boroughs.
LEAs already spend more than £662m on school transport and the government seem to feel any expansion would be unaffordable. However, another report for the Sutton Trust by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that a dedicated primary school bus scheme would cost another £184m p.a., but would deliver economic benefits of up to £458m – a saving of £274m!
While educational, environmental, and ideological battles may have some small impact on decision makers, ultimately it may be the argument about congestion being a brake on economic development that will lead to a change of heart by the government. This is unlikely in the short term, so it comes back to community pressure, and the need for a celebrity driver (pardon the pun). With the two most high-profile school transport campaigners (Jools Oliver and Ewan McGregor) supporting parental driving rights, it seems that school transport will remain a pariah celebrity cause.
As with obesity and school food, the largest part of this problem is not to found within schools or in the personal behaviour of students, but with the attitudes and actions of parents. Camden parents may have more luck if they change the name of their lobby group, as the acronym (STAG) is the same as the Department of Transport’s School Transport Advisory Group, which advocates cutting school run congestion by using buses.
One of the underlying problems with this issue is that it is not really the 1996 Education Act that is relevant but the earlier 1944 Act which tried to link transport provision to the issue of school attendance. At law, this meant that parents had a defence against being charged with failing to ensure their child was educated if they lived more than the specified distance from the nearest appropriate school and the LEA did not provided free transport. These distances, which are described as walking distances, are based on what was considered a reasonable walking distance for a child in the 19th century.
The School Transport Bill of 2004 was not passed because of the election, but now has a new lease of life because it has been incorporated into the Education Bill, currently moving through parliament. If this ever passes, it may bring some change because it places a duty on local authorities to provide free transport for some of the most disadvantaged (i.e. those eligible for free school meals or whose parents are in receipt of the maximum level of Working Tax Credit). It will also allow some Pathfinder local authorities to ‘pilot innovative approaches’, which might just include more yellow buses.