(Continued from previous page)

You can write to Dr. Gridlock, P.O. Box 3467, Fairfax, Va. 22038-3467, or e-mail him at [email protected]. The doctor's fax number is 703-352-3908. Please include your full name, town, county, and day and evening phone numbers. Because of the number of responses, Dr. Gridlock cannot take phone calls.

                        © 2000 The Washington Post

WHY CAN'T JOHNNY WALK TO SCHOOL?

By Edward T. McMahon.
Director of the American Greenways Program
November 28, 2000

Did you walk to school as a child? Unfortunately, most kids today must be driven to school.

All over the country, communities are abandoning historic neighborhood schools that students can walk to in favor of new schools the size of shopping malls built in far-flung locations.

In Rice Lake, Wis., for example, almost 200 elementary school students who now walk to school will soon be bused to a new school because of a school district plan to close several existing schools.

In Corning, N.Y., three neighborhood schools may soon be abandoned for a new building--five miles out of town.

The problem for communities and families isn't just the added public cost of constructing a new building where an older, historic one sufficed, or the increasing expense associated with operating a growing fleet of school buses. It's also that schools serve as community anchors and their location helps shape the character of the surrounding countryside.

The new trend of closing neighborhood schools and consolidating students in immense buildings far away is turning out to be a prime culprit in encouraging wasteful and damaging suburban sprawl. Enough people are concerned about school sprawl that this year the National Trust for Historic Preservation added historic neighborhood schools to its annual list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places. What's driving school sprawl? While the factors vary from state to state, at the top of the list are arbitrary school construction and funding policies that make it difficult, if not impossible to either renovate existing neighborhood schools or to construct new schools close to where students live.

Among the biggest impediments are state education department space requirements. National guidelines recommended by the Council of Educational Facility Planners International call for at least one acre for every 100 students plus 10 acres for an ele

(Continued on next page)