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A token of school cuts' disaffection: End of free bus rides

Twenty-nine pages into the Philadelphia School District's list of painful cuts coming for next year is this ugly gem: Most students will lose their free ride to school next year.

Twenty-nine pages into the Philadelphia School District's list of painful cuts coming for next year is this ugly gem: Most students will lose their free ride to school next year.

The district wants to cut bus transportation and SEPTA TransPasses for 45,000 students in the city.

The only students exempted from the cut, which is estimated to save $38.5 million, are charter-school students and students with disabilities who are legally required to be bused to school.

Students who go to private or parochial school also would lose their free rides to school, which aren't mandated by state law.

"We are setting our children up for failure," said Christine Pembleton, a parent whose son will attend Northeast High School next year and uses a TransPass. "Children are losing all around with these cuts."

The cut is part of the district's proposal announced yesterday to overcome a $629 million deficit. The proposal still has to be voted on by the School Reform Commission by the end of next month.

The most troublesome reality of the TransPass cut, some say, is that it will negatively affect an already high dropout rate for Philadelphia students.

"The cut will be a fundamental deterrent for students to go to school," said Helen Gym, whose daughter goes to Masterman. "It also places a financial strain on parents."

The cut also will make it more dangerous for a student's commute to school, parents said.

"Students will now have to walk past drug dealers to get to and from school," said Pembleton, whose son will have to walk five miles. "I worry not only about my son, but the safety of children in each community."

Another parent agreed with the safety issue.

"The potential risks for children to go to school will increase, and students will not want to go to school," said Autumne Hall, whose child will now have to travel 30 minutes by foot to commute to school.

One parent is also questioning the strategy of the cuts.

As the cuts keep rolling in from the Philadelphia School District, parents and students wonder what will be next.

"The Philadelphia School District said it would be making strategic cuts; instead they are hacking away," Gym said. "It is just downright cruel to the parents and kids of Philadelphia students."