LifeWise keeps telling communities the same thing:
“It’s separate from the school.”
“No taxpayer money is used.”
“Public schools just release the kids.”
Okay.
Then why do public school buses keep showing up in the records?
SEA reviewed board minutes, contracts, emails, and transportation documents from multiple districts, and what we found blows a massive hole in the “totally separate” narrative.
📍We found public school buses sold to LifeWise for $1.
📍We found district officials recommending the sale of two buses to LifeWise for $1 each.
📍We found bus rental contracts.
📍We found district-driver approvals.
📍We found transportation van requests.
📍We found emails discussing driver hours and cost calculations.
📍And we found districts repeatedly being pulled into solving the transportation problem LifeWise created by removing children from school during the school day.
A school bus is not just a bus. ➡️ It is a taxpayer-funded public asset.
A district driver is not just a driver.➡️ That is public labor, public training, public insurance, public liability, and public coordination.
LifeWise loves to market released time as off campus, parent-permitted, and privately funded. But they keep leaving out the part that matters most:
🚨Public schools are supposed to stay neutral.
And selling buses, renting buses, approving drivers, discussing vans, calculating transportation costs, and creating backup plans for LifeWise does not look like neutrality. To us It looks more like entanglement. 👀
This is where the constitutional problem comes in.
👏Public schools are not supposed to treat LifeWise like a special partner. If another private group would not get a school bus for $1, discounted transportation, reduced rental fees, district drivers, or special backup plans, LifeWise should not get them either. Neutrality means neutrality. Not sweetheart deals. Not special access.
Read the full article here: https://seculareducationassociation.org/2026/06/15/when-separate-needs-a-school-bus/
Because if LifeWise needs public school buses, drivers, contracts, and staff time to function, then it is time for communities to ask how “separate” this program really is.
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: 📢This is how communities catch it.
✔️Look at board minutes. ✔️Search contracts. ✔️Request emails. ✔️Check transportation records.
🕵️♀️Find out whether your district is selling, renting, staffing, approving, or coordinating anything for LifeWise.
Document it. Save it. Send us what you find.
- Facebook User: I have two things to say about this
1) Back in 80s, I went to public high school. At that time, one of the areas Catholic high schools had their students hop on the public school but to get to my high school. From there, they caught their schools bus. Reverse for dismissal.
As a teen, I thought it was strange & against ‘ church & state’. It seemed like it was just accepted. ( I was a walking student, so I didnt have a dog in that fight, as the saying goes)School choice ( aka vouchers/ tax credits) is a shell game played with the education of children.
Sleight of hand; now you see it, now you don’t kind of thing.
With these ‘tax credits’, a majority of folks who use these for ALREADY had a child/children in private school. It’s a discount for the wealthy. - Facebook User: Outlaw voucher schools.
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