[SustainableTompkins] Fw: Fuel spike could cost schools $40M

[George Frantz]

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Fuel spike could cost schools $40M

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The all-American yellow school bus and all the environmental and economic costs associated with it are just another example of something that could substantially disappear if we were to move away from the pattern of scattered rural and suburban residential development and toward more compact, sustainable communities.  
 
If Ithaca, T-burg, Newfield, Dryden and Groton villages accounted for 75 to 80 percent of Tompkins County population instead of 20 to 25 percent they actually do, that would leave both enough people living on our farms to produce our food supply, and place our schools within walking distance of children.
 
Even assuming that the the rural Caroline and Enfield schools remain open,  ICSD could likely get by with about 25 to 30 percent of the busses it now has to put on the road.
 
Extrapolated across the country, the economic savings and the reduction in environmental degradation would be tremendous.
 
 
George Frantz