Marilyn Musgrave: “I thank the gentlelady. She has spoken very well about the impact on families with the high price of fuel and what we…”

“I thank the gentlelady. She has spoken very well about the impact on families with the high price of fuel and what we need to address those prices. It's interesting, too, as we talk about families, we have schools. In my district, it's 7 rac{1}{2} ext{ hours from one side of my district to the other. We have rural school districts, and buses have to travel long distances, and now schools are trying to ascertain how they're going to pay the high cost of fuel, and there are changes coming up. When you look at schools, they're doing things like going to the 4-day week. They're changing. They think of the money they can save if they don't have to transport the kids and heat the buildings and do those things during the day. So when they look at the fuel price for transportation, they're thinking they're going to go to this 4-day week. Sadly, it's impacting sports and schools, and we know that many times sports is what keeps students in schools, and it has such a good role to play in their life, but they're having to curtail their driving for this because they can't afford it anymore and they might drop programs. So schools that even want to do field trips, and this is especially enriching for students who perhaps may be in families where they can't afford to do many things, but these kids enjoy these school trips. These outings are very good for them, but schools are saying that students will have to pay for a fee for that or they will have to forgo their field trips.”