Petition to stand up for San Francisco Working Class Families: Safe means of transportation for our children. In a struggling economy, San Francisco families are already struggling to make ends meet. Parents of all creeds and backgrounds are faced with the burden of living in an ultra-high cost city. Parents are often forced to work double jobs or odd- long hours. Today's financial realities are ones with great sacrifice and pain.That sacrifice should never translate to the immediate safety of our children. On Tuesday December 14th, 2010, The San Francisco School Board voted 6-0 on a policy to more than halve the number of big yellow school buses on city streets. The School Board has already eliminated yellow school buses for high school students this year, Saving 1.3 Million.The remaining 44 yellow school buses that serve our community and children will be reduced to a total of 25. This will put low-income parents who don't have the privilege of being able to drive their children to school in an even more compromising position. Inevitably, certain small children will be forced to ride public transportation alone. Incidentally, as current events and statistics have proven- children traveling alone will become subject to crime on an already 'crime troubled' Muni system. Muni is currently facing budget shortfalls of it's own by resorting to painful fare hikes on commuters.To mandate any child to pay his/her own transportation fare in order to acquire what is said to be a 'free' public education, is irresponsible. You can not put a price on the safety of our children. This petition is to urge the elected San Francisco School Board to reconsider, and find alternative means that won't greatly impact San Francisco working class families. EDUCATION IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE!

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