2 miles would be in the bus zone.

I don’t know why people are pretending this is impossible, it’s exactly how it worked when I was in public school. In the US.

Everyone walked or took a bus. Maybe there was like one or two kids who had some sort of special circumstance that required them to get picked up.

It might just be possible that in a country of 300+ million people spread over 3 million square miles where each school district is operated at a local level…for two people to have had different experiences.

Either way if your parents thought 5 was old enough to get home from school by yourself, good for you I guess.

They didn’t, I walked home with a friend who lived nearby and hung out until my mom was done work. Could have taken the bus home, but they didn’t want me home alone at that age.

Also, it may not seem like it anymore, but we do have a Department of Education that could pretty easily come up with nationwide rules regarding bussing. They could even afford to subsidize it in areas with lower income. Or, you know, not make education quality a function of an area’s wealth in the first place, and just administer it all at the federal (or even just state) level.