Return JCPS Students to their Neighborhood Schools

We, The Louisville Grassroots Tea Party as concerned citizens,

with the undersigned concerned citizens strongly support BR 111, a pre-filed, common-sense bill that calls for a public school assignment plan that establishes student's right to attend the neighborhood school nearest him/her. We believe that the reasons for supporting a return to a neighborhood school assignment plan are numerous, practical and best serve the actual education of the studentthe PRINCIPAL focus of why a school (system) exists in the first place.

1) TIME: Transporting children on long bus rides across town takes away from family time, homework time, extracurricular time, and makes it very difficult for meaaningful parental involvement at the school itself, all of which are crucial for a student's academic success.

2) COST: Transporting children thousands of miles across town daily is a huge and needless expense. JCPS has quietly raised property taxes 4\%...for the 3rd consecutive yearin what they admit is a recession.

3) ENVIRONMENT: The excess of 900 school buses criss-crossing the countys roads 5 days a week adds to environmental pollutants that theoretically can harm our children. The JCPS concern for idling cars in front of schools pales by comparison.

4) SAVINGS: Large revenues that could be saved by eliminating these excessive transportation costs could be allocated to at risk schools, decreasing the teacher/student ratio where teachers are better able to diagnose children's needs and plan accordingly and can improve the proficiency scores that are falling behind in Kentucky and Jefferson County in reaching the goals set forth by No Child Left Behind.