My Turn - Our school tax dollars at work or why I don't vote for the school budget

So I am on my way to work, a day that I really don’t have to get to the office early, so it’s a little later than my usual commute into NYC. It’s going to be a nice spring day, it’s cool, but the morning sun is already warming the air. I am in my car listening to Shadow Traffic to make sure there are no backups on the New York Thruway, or any of the bridges (part of my morning ritual). I turn onto Forrester Avenue and get behind one of the many Warwick Valley school buses. The bus stops at one of the houses to pick up a young girl carrying a book bag. Her mother gives her a kiss and sends her on her way. The flashing red lights of the bus seem to go on and on, but I am patient and after a minute or two it’s on its way. The bus moves along to retrieve its next passenger - about 100 feet away. I think to myself, when I was that age I had to walk down the block to the bus stop where a bunch of kids would huddle together in all kinds of weather and wait for the bus. So I sit and wait again, but I am in no hurry so I sort of look around my car. I see an old gum wrapper in my ash tray and I pick it up and stuff it into my pocket. I need to throw that into the garbage when I get to work. The flashing lights cease and we are on the way. Nope, another stop, maybe 75 feet more. I look around my car again and the trip odometer on my car draws my attention. I reset it and think, I wonder how far the bus will go before it stops again? The bus is on its way one more time, then turns the corner and pulls into the school yard. I glance down and my trip odometer hasn’t even budged. That means my car has not even traveled one tenth of a mile. The kids that go to school on Forrester Avenue and live on Forrester Avenue are being picked up and delivered to school. A school that is so close you could throw a stone into the school yard. I wonder how much fuel it takes for the bus to stop. I wonder how much more time the kids in the bus who live further have to sit. I wonder how much more time the driver must spend driving that bus. I wonder: Is that the biggest waste of money I have ever seen in my life? Robert Coleman is associate dean of communication/media support at The College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale and a resident of Warwick.