My name is Maria and for many years I’ve seen the same family walk by my house to get to school every day. I never knew why, but always wonder. I come from Puerto Rico and if you go to public school in PR you get free transportation in your district all the way to twelve grade. When my daughter Sammantha entered kindergarten at Eugenio Maria De Hostos Charter School I was told she is not eligible for transportation, just because we live almost 1.5 mile from school. I have a car, so yes I can drive her. But I also suffered a fall resulting on a back fracture and that condition makes it very painful to drive. When I requested transportation I was told I needed forms from my doctor stating my conditions. I was also told that this form has to be file every year and it was only good until Sammantha goes to 3rd grade, after that no more transportation will be provided. I told the lady on the phone, Sammantha is going to be 8 yrs. old and I will still be disable…the answer….you are going to have to make other arrangements for her for the next school year. We want our inner city children to be educated; or at least finish high school, but they have to struggle from pre-k to make it to school. From a very young age we are telling our children that if you want to get an education, you first have to figure out the way to make it to school. Every child should have easy access to education. Parents should not be worried about figuring the way to get their children to school and still be responsible with their shifts at work. How about the parents that don’t have access to a car? How about this young children that have to walk in this cruel Rochester weather to get to school? How about the children walking through very unsafe neighbourhoods to get to school? We have very young children crossing very busy streets by themselves to get to school. Not everybody has the same parenting skills, and some of these children depend on getting to school on time to have breakfast, but because of the walk some of them go hungry until lunch time. How about the violence situation in down town Rochester? Why not getting this middle school and high school students home safe and keep them from meeting each other and causing so much chaos? I would like to challenge the RCSD Policy Development and Review Committee to do the walk the want some of the students have to do every day. I would like them to walk the distance they expect my daughter to walk every day. I would like for them to walk with this family I see every day, but do it on a rainy or snowy day, for a whole week. It would also be nice if they use the RTS services every day for a week in the middle of the chaos and fights. I would like the members of the committee to even walk a mile and a half to go to work every day for a week period. After doing any of these things, I would like to hear from each one of them if they are willing to do so all year around. I understand that the 1.5 miles policy is a budget issue, but I believe it should be an educational issue, a safety issue, a weather issue, a getting on time for breakfast issue. Many more factors should be considered before we impose our decisions on our children. IF WE WANT HIGHER GRADUATION RATES ….LET’S GET THEM TO SCHOOL FIRST!!!!