To the editor:

I recently received a letter from the Lawrence public school district informing me that the “PayRide” program was being eliminated for the 2009-2010 school year. This program has allowed families to have their children bused to and from school, from within a 2.5-mile radius of the school, where state funding for school bus transportation begins.

I have used this program for the past year so my son could get to school, and daily he boarded a bus packed with elementary school students, nearly all of which were PayRide students.

As a parent, I use this program because it makes sense. Even though I live about one mile from my son’s school, he cannot walk as he would have to cross 23rd Street and Iowa street. Others prefer to put their children on a school bus because it’s the environmental thing to do. According to the letter I received, eliminating the PayRide program will save the district $444,000 annually. For a district that claims to be “green” to the point they are proposing a green charter school, I would think the board would see the low-hanging environmental fruit that is the PayRide program.

The solutions the letter I received proposed were nothing short of ridiculous, from arranging “walking buses” to having my first-grader ride on “The T.” I think there are better ways to survive a budget cut, and as residents of a “progressive” town like Lawrence, we deserve better.