I came across an interesting report yesterday from the American Association of School Administrators that discussed the role of health school environments is promoting the health of students in both mind and body. It left me thinking where school buses fit in.
The spring edition of “Healthy Learning News” basically revolves around two superintendent success stories in Beaufort County and Jasper County, S.C., and in Jackson, Tenn., where the school systems are positively affecting student health. Certainly school administrators influencing paradigm shifts in how their students (and their parents) view daily activity levels and health eating is vital. Look no further than chef-lebrity Jamie Oliver turning around student and school personnel attitudes toward healthy diets in Huntington, W.V. His TV show “Food Revolution” has opened eyes across the country.
As AASA rightly points out, poverty has a direct impact on childhood obesity because poorer people, most often in more rural areas, have a harder time accessing affordable healthy food. The result is that kids eat, for example, pizza for breakfast. Race and ethnicity also play a role in kids being overweight, especially in these rural areas, studies show. The phenomenon mirrors those of the issues poor kids have with school choice and access to better educational opportunities through school transportation services.
The AASA report also states, the purchasing power of rural school systems or lack thereof further effects student access to healthy, affordable foods. And that problem is one that rural transportation departments are all too familiar with.
When it comes to food and other services, Cornell University’s New York Center for Rural Schools published a February 2009 study recommending that districts with fewer than 1,000 students merge with a neighboring district to reduce expenses. Sound familiar? Leading school transportation experts for years have been preaching that rural districts should at least enter co-ops and joint power authorities to share costs.
The double-edged sword of school busing is that, on one hand, it is viewed by transporters and many educators alike as being vital to school access. The safety record aside, school buses are perhaps most important to rural school children because how far from school many of them live. And walking or biking in rural areas is often not an option, at least a safe one. But what affect does that have on active young lives in a time when many are looking to cut transportation or eliminate it altogether? Perception, as they say, is reality.
That’s where the rest of the school system and the community must play a larger role. As in role models, and that includes transportation departments and their employees, including school bus drivers.
Ask yourself how school transportation can “fit” in with promoting healthier lifestyles.
