As society scrambled to change countless aspects of our day-to-day lives in hopes of reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the silent disappearance of West Shore school bus routes went almost unnoticed and unaddressed. When the 2021-2022 school year arrived and a return to normalcy began to take place, buses had not made the same comeback that the rest of the school seemed to.

Since then, school buses have not returned to any of Brevard County’s schools of choice, primarily as a result of budget cuts and a shortage of bus drivers that the area has yet to recover from. Although this change is understandable to an extent, it is undoubtedly causing great harm to education in our local community that far outweighs any possible benefits that the money saved from excluding choice schools from bus routes could potentially bring.

Brevard County is the heart of the Space Coast and a region that thrives on STEM education and concepts as part of its culture, and this branch of education is what choice schools excel at providing. Despite the small number of them in the county, they are a crucial resource for children who grow up in the area aspiring to pursue a career in the field, especially when taking into account that Brevard’s choice schools are known for being junior and senior high schools, starting at seventh grade rather than ninth. Not only that, but these schools also offer countless Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses that can make a significant difference for students in both the experience they obtain with their interests and in the strength of their portfolio to successfully allow for even further education like college or trade schools.

Allowing young students the opportunity to pursue more rigorous education paths in order to explore their interests with greater depth for the next six years of their lives is an invaluable opportunity that everyone deserves to, at the very least, have the option to accept. By eliminating these bus routes to choice schools, these essential nurturing environments are being directly blocked off for demographics of students whose families are not able to afford expenses to live near choice schools or to pay for a vehicle and fuel to travel on a daily basis. At the end of the day, schools of choice are still public schools that are paid for by the community’s tax money, and to make them a resource only available to a select few families is demeaning to the countless taxpaying families who cannot afford travel yet still help provide the money that makes the existence of these schools possible.

Even though staff shortages and lack of funding are challenges that have been especially palpable since the pandemic, it would be unjust to say that there is simply nothing that can be done to solve this issue, more so when considering the plentiful funding that many other aspects of education like sports extracurriculars and facilities receive from Brevard Public Schools. If enough voices at the school board advocate in defense of making the privilege of choice school education available to all, a way will inevitably be devised to reallocate funding by reassessing priorities rather than taking away from other programs. If the county’s bus programs are sufficiently strengthened, there will be an increase in the hiring of bus drivers, allowing for the return of these essential routes that aid children of all backgrounds in attending choice schools for a stronger education.