Well, blow me!

Sometimes it's only when something is removed that you realise it was ever there in the first place.  Many councils looking to make savings are it seems contemplating scrapping the provision of free transport for pupils attending faith schools which are not considered to be within walking distance.  And you think - or certainly I do - what??!  I've absolutely no problem with parents choosing to send their children to a Catholic, Anglican, Jewish, Muslim or whatever school, but why should I, as a council taxpayer, pay their bus fare?  Councils are not obliged to provide free transport for such pupils, but the provision for them to do so has been there ever since the 1944 Education Act it seems, and the Equality Act of 2006 specifically stated that provision of such free transport - or rather, not providing it for others - did not amount to unlawful discrimination under the Act.  So if you choose to send your child to a far-away school because it specialises in sport, or music, or computer science or some such then the cost of getting them there and back is down to you, but if you choose to send them the same distance to a faith school you can - or at least have been able to up until now - look to the council to provide free transport.  Don't seem right, do it?