Friday, February 28, 2014
Kent "Freedom" Pass...
Parents of children travelling to school by bus must be disappointed when they see the cost of the, so called Kent Freedom Pass going up and up. When my son used to travel to Tunbridge Wells every day he paid a £50 "admin fee" for the pass. This subsequently rose to £100 and now they are making noises about putting the fee up to £200. It seems difficult to see how "admin" could cost £20 let alone £200. Most of the children using it have little or no choice and probably get no extra benefit other than their journey to school. At one point they were talking about extending the scheme to the young people who would really stand to benefit, the over 16s of sixth form and college age, but I'm not sure what came of that proposal. That would have given that age group real "Freedom." There is an online consultation on this whole subject coming up and you can find out details here although good luck with that because, as with most local government forums they seem designed to deliberately put you off bothering....
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3 comments:
What I don't like about these changes Is the fact that a parent may have chosen a particular school for their child because of the availability and price of the freedom pass and a year on KCC are changing the rules. Maybe KCC Should give existing holders the same terms and conditions until their children reach 16.
the consultation shows that they intend to charge 16 to 19 year olds £400 for the 'freedom' pass. These young people are now required to stay in education but clearly this will not be subsidized as much as the younger children. All very odd.
Anon 8.57, you cant blame KCC for this but central government for failing to fund the needs of 16 to 19 year olds in further education.
Central government chose to give extra money to set up Free schools and for the pupil premium so there's not much left in the education budget unless of course you wonder where's all the cash that they are now saving on uni tuition fees?
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