Phila. parents decry school ride changes

It's exactly 1.5 miles from Mary Conrad's Olney home to Central High, where she'll be a sophomore in the fall.

But Mary's mom, Katherine, would never let her daughter walk to school - she worries that something bad could happen to Mary on the trip through tough streets.

"It's not just your block they're walking through," Katherine Conrad said. "You're walking through uncharted territories. They're not always safe on the bus, but at least they're safer than they are out there on the streets."

Conrad and about 30 other parents and citizens came to Philadelphia School District headquarters last night to tell officials they don't like a proposed policy that could cut free transportation for more than 13,000 city students.

The changes could save the cash-strapped district $8 million and would affect some students in seventh through 12th grades who now receive free SEPTA TransPasses. Students who ride school buses would not be affected.

Proposed is a switch in mileage requirements for all pupils - public, private and charter. Students now receive free rides if they live 1.5 miles or more away from school; the new policy would change that to two miles.

In all, about 6,500 students would lose their rides. District officials say they are making the change to be consistent with state regulations. Pennsylvania reimburses most of the cost of rides for seventh through 12th grade students who live two miles or more away from school, and for students in the lower grades who live 1.5 miles or more away.

Also being considered is an attendance requirement, with only students who show up 85 percent of the time or more receiving the free TransPasses. More than 7,000 students could lose their free ride if that is approved.

Mary Conrad is one student who stands to lose her ride to school if the new policy is passed. She walked home from school a few times her freshman year, Katherine Conrad said, "and every single time, my heart was in my throat."

It will be tough, but she will find a way to pay the estimated $720 annually it would take to buy Mary's TransPass, Katherine Conrad said.

But for some students, that won't be an option, said Mary Greenway, a counselor in the district. The district used to provide reduced-price tokens instead of TransPasses, and Greenway remembers the fallout when the cost of those went up for students two years ago.

"It was a hardship for many families," Greenway said, adding that some had to share a single bus pass or package of tokens. "This shouldn't just be on the backs of kids."

Lance Haver, the city's consumer advocate, said that adopting this policy would stifle school choice for many, and lead to increased truancy and crime.

"The human cost is high," Haver said.

Carol Carson peppered district officials with questions. The director of youth services for Family Court, Carson worries about how such a policy would be implemented and how it would affect students.

"What efforts are going to be made for safe corridors as these children [go] through areas with guns and gangs?" Carson asked.

Stanley Witalec, president of North Catholic High School in the Juniata Park section of the city, said the mileage change would hit the schools of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia particularly hard.

"That little half-mile will be marked with the potholes of financial hardship for the families of students," Witalec said. It might make the difference for some now just squeaking by to pay for a Catholic education and mean those children would have to return to taxpayer-supported public schools, he said.

Another public meeting on the proposed changes is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. today. Next, the School Reform Commission will consider the policy. A date for that meeting has not been set.