The Albert Lea school board made the right decision to reduce the busing limit to one mile from two.

Whether the switchover date should have been Dec. 3 or Jan. 2 &8212; the board picked Dec. 3 &8212; doesn&8217;t matter so much. Switching over is what matters. The change goes a long ways toward goodwill with the community and, especially, with the parents of children concerned about the coming wintry weather.

Some parents were driving their children to school and others were paying for the busing. Parents are busy enough with work and, for some, community involvement that the convenience of placing their children on the school buses will be a relief.

The children who had to walk hopefully will appreciate it, too. Some grownups would point out that walking makes kids tougher and stronger &8212; and it&8217;s a good argument with which we agree &8212; but for the kids who will be on the bus instead of on foot, let&8217;s hope they understand how fortunate they are.

The main point, though, is the busing measure is a gesture that the school board wants to undo the cuts that came at the start of this fiscal year.

And everyone in the school district can rejoice over that.