Priorities: $4 million to walk to school...and no one's walking

The St. Paul Pioneer Press has the story of another waste of taxpayer money:  $4 million spent in Minnesota to make it easier for children to walk to school.  And guess what, $4 million later no kids are walking to school.

Our Federal overseers think that kids are not walking to school "because of the lack of sidewalks and safe street crossings."  As the Pioneer Press explains later in the article, elementary school kids don't walk to school--not because they are lazy or obese--because in our Federally-mandated bike-helmet, child seat, and electric outlet-plugged world, the idea of an elementary school kid walking to school is insane.

As one parent helpfully explains,

"It's nerve-wracking, in this day and age.  I worry about predators preying on kids," said Andy Parker of Woodbury, who drives his daughter four blocks to Bailey School every day.  "I may be overprotective, but I have a pretty big fear of that."  Such fears are a reality of modern life, said Gary Dechaine, transportation director for South Washington County Schools, and he wondered if any federal program could change that.
"No parent today would ever have their kid walk six blocks," Dechaine said.

Exactly.  Why the Federal government should think that $4 million will change the very behaviours that they have instilled in parents beggars belief.

Nonetheless, more important priorities are at work here for the Feds.  Former Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar provides his reasoning for creating the program back in 2000, "Oberstar was appalled at the steep increases in childhood obesity and diabetes."

Of course you, Dear Reader, were not fooled by the obesity feint.  You knew all along that the Safe Routes to Schools program was all about combating climate change through school curricula.  That and providing jobs for bureaucrats and conferences for other bureaucrats to attend.

Our own Minnesota Department of Transportation hosted the most recent national conference, held last month in Minneapolis.  There, more than 500 attendees heard important presentations on Safe Routes' ties to the "Green" movement and "complete streets."

Every year, the Pew Research Center conducts a nationwide poll on ranking domestic policy issues.  In 2011, Pew found that, not surprisingly, the economy and jobs ranked first and second, respectively.  Ranking dead last (22nd out of 22) was obesity.  Ranking next to last (21st) was global warming.  Guess which two issues are most important to the Federal government and which two issues receive Federal funding.