The Legislature states a policy in the California’s Education Code that affords equal rights and opportunities for all people in public schools. It prohibits school policy contrary to this state policy.

Communities formed unified school districts throughout the nation to save money by consolidating administration costs and by combining uses of school buildings and equipment. They recognized that where students lived relative to schools created unequal access to education for some of them. They cured the inequality by providing transportation for students who lived more than a certain distance from schools. This decision established ethical standard for bridging this equality gap.

School districts like VCUSD made the three-mile distance from school the threshold for providing school bus transportation for high school students. This allowed the district to build new high schools anyplace and equalize the access problems with bus transportation for high school students living three or more miles away. People purchased homes or entered rental agreements based on this long-term policy. It is neither fair nor ethical arbitrarily to cancel this policy.

Currently, VCUSD policy provides transportation for high school students who live three or more miles from school. Ending it will affect about 350 high students that currently ride school buses according to VCUSD spokesperson Tish Busselle. A budget decision that balances the budget by ending equal access to education for about 2.5% of VCUSD students is an unfair remedy.

Mostly the children of low-income families will walk the six-plus miles a day to receive an education. Or, their families will have to squeeze bus ticket money from already tight budgets as Damelio shifts VCUSD expenses to them.

I did not conclude this from information in an official VCUSD transportation impact study, because it did not conduct one. Busselle says, “We’ll monitor attendance next year to see how it affects attendance.” No government agency would accept an after-the-fact environmental study about a school district’s decision that might adversely affect some endangered animal or insect. Nevertheless, VCUSD officials believe an after-the-fact study acceptable for a decision that may negatively impact a social class of students.

Damelio should have know from information available to him that this decision mostly would affect students from lower-income families and those from the racial group VCUSD tracks as African-American. Transportation surveys show low-income and nonwhite residents mostly rely on public transportation. They are the ones adversely affected by rate increases and decrease of services.

The percentage of free or reduced priced meals served at Vallejo high schools—Hogan 31%, Jesse Bethel 26% and Vallejo 37% of students—should have given him a clue that many students from low-income families attend there. Where those schools are found suggests a high likelihood that most students entitled to subsidized meals travel there by school bus from distant neighborhoods.

Tish Busselle identified 250 high school students from Country Club Crest as current school bus riders. This is 71% of those high school students she reported that currently ride school buses. They will be predominately students VCUSD tracks as African-American, because of City of Vallejo’s past housing practices of racial discrimination. Someone could confirm this just by watching who gets off the school bus one morning.

So, Damelio should have known his decision mostly impacts low-income students and those VCUSD tracks as African-American. Clearly, this decision should not stand, because it violates policies of equity by targeting one class of students even if unintentional.

I prefer to show the discriminatory nature of a government policy without invoking race. I mention race here, because VCUSD and California use it as a standard for judging students’ educational opportunity and academic performance. They claim that school officials gain significant information about students’ learning problems by combining individual students’ performance records to create academic profiles of racial groups. If school officials believe this, they must evaluate how policy decisions aimed at one racial group affect those students academic performance.

Not all people that society labels African-American and not all residents in Country Club Crest are low-income families. Neither do all students who ride school buses come from low-income families. However, many of them do and this decision will affect where they choose to live or where they can live without being disadvantaged by this new VCUSD transportation policy.

The primary concern about this decision is fairness and equal access to schools no matter students’ family income. Families living three-plus miles from schools may choose private transportation for their children. But fairness rules require they should have a choice not to do it. Damelio should reverse the change to the transportation policy

Kenneth Brooks is a freelance writer and speaker. Contact him at P.O. Box 882, Vallejo, CA 94590. E-mail to: opinion@ethicalego.com.