Posted on 10/06/2008 8:11:35 AM PDT by mombyprofession
LANSING- Lt. Governor John D. Cherry, Jr. today announced that 41 Michigan elementary and middle schools in 10 counties will receive more than $8.7 million in federal "Safe Routes to School" funding. The schools will implement safety improvements and education programs aimed at encouraging healthy lifestyles and improve opportunities for students to travel safely between home and school. Eight of the cities with schools receiving the grants are Cities of Promise.
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Michigan Fitness Foundation reviewed the grant applications. The schools receiving funding will implement education and encouragement programs during the 2008-09 school year, and complete infrastructure work, such as sidewalks and crosswalks, in 2009. The Safe Routes to School program encourages parents, teachers, neighborhoods and schools to work together to improve safety for children who walk and bike to school.
"Children in every community deserve a safe way to get to school, and this funding will help communities across our state provide it," Cherry said. "Here in Detroit, thousands of students will benefit from the hard work of their schools, parents, teachers and community leaders who put these plans together."
"Keeping children safe is the leading concern we hear expressed over and over from residents in the six Detroit neighborhoods where we work," said Ed Egnatios, senior program officer, Skillman Foundation. "This funding will help Detroit and is an important step towards demonstrating the power of residents and youth, schools, city departments and state government officials working together to make these neighborhoods better for children."
(Excerpt) Read more at michigan.gov ...
Michigan Ping
OFCOL ping
sheesh
MOre funding to ‘raise awareness’ that kids need to be safe.
Thank God we have the government speding $8million to tell us this.
How far we’ve fallen. When I was in grade school (yes, grade school) we would walk to school. It was a mile each way, and in MA it’s cold and harsh in winter. The sight of 5th and 6th graders walking to school and back was the norm. In my six years in grammer school, there was not a single incident of any kid being hurt, except for once when a car clipped a kid by accident and he got some bumps and bruises. Now, after 50 years of Liberal ideaology, if you let your kid walk to school you’d be imprisoned for endangerment and your kid would be taken by DSS. This is the status of America as we head towards the elections. In a perverse way, an Obama presidency would force the country to confront domestic terrorism (and I include boards of education as terrorist organizations) ina new way.
Basically this program is designed to encourage walking to school to minimize the traffic congestion in front of schools. In my prior law enforcement job, we had to put crossing guards in front of 3 elementary schools just because of parents dropping off their children. One family lived across the street, 2 doors down from the school in a residential neighborhood.
This money will help to replace sidewalks, create crosswalks, and generally improve conditions to make walking safe. One condition is the ‘feeling of safety’. For example, we have a corner lot where the trees are growing over the sidewalk. Someone could ‘hide’ in the bushes possible grabbing a kid on the way to school.
Most of the things covered should be the responsibility of the local governmental unit. Unfortunately, the economy in Michigan is so poor that infrastructure is next to last on the important things to do.
Aw, shucks. Sterling Heights isn’t on the list. I guess that means I have to live in terror that my children won’t make it to school safely. C’mon gubmint, what about me? Make my community safer, too!
Nine million bucks to teach kids to walk to school.
Here’s the precious one.
City of Flint
WilliamsElementary School will improve sidewalks and crosswalks on Iowa, Olive, Leith, Minnesota, Wyoming, Utah, Franklin, Vernon and Cook; install a bicycle rack at the school; and introduce school-based education and encouragement activities, including “Walk to School” days and a “Walking School Bus” program. The project budget is $359,125.
A walking school bus program. In’t that special?
I got a better idea, cancel all the school buses and make the chilluns make their own way to school, like we all had to do. In grade school, I walked about a half mile each way every day, rain sun or snow. And I walked home for lunch and back to school every day, rain, sun or snow.
In high school, I took a city bus, but twice I missed the last bus and walked 7 miles. Bummer for me but that’s life.
spendspendspendspendspendohmygodweareoutofmoneytaxtaxtaxtaxtax
they wouldn’t recognize fiscal responsibility if it were a Louisville Slugger that just cracked them in the nose.
More than $920,000.00 for sidewalks in Benton Harbor???
The whole damn city isn’t worth that much!
Benton Harbor makes Detroit look like the garden spot of the whole state.
Your gas tax dollars at work.
Kalamazoo County: Village of Augusta
What, they plan on teaching the kiddies how to roll-up the sidewalks and turn out the lights?
Just let it turn into a crossroads village. Sell some C-Store gas to itinerants and anyone who wants to stay, can.
Now if they built them the way they built that bridge north of Potter's Park on Penn Ave...
The problem with spending like this is that it is no substitute for parents taking an active interest in their kids safety and can lull some people into complacency.
LOL! Thanks.
Absolutely! (Do I really have to end the sarcasm?)Thanks for finding this. I feel soooooo much safer already.
Now
/sarc
Absolutely absurd. Michigan has too darned much money. What a waste. There’s a govt program for everything.
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