WHEN YOU REALLY WANT SOMETHING BAD ENOUGH...

There's an interesting story in today's Lakeland Ledger featuring two high schoolers who make significant sacrifices when compared to their counterparts to get the type of education they want.

The story is part of the Ledger's current series on the Polk County School District's use of various practices to maintain a diverse student population, including spot zoning, busing, and the use of magnet schools and schools of choice.

The two students which are the focus of the piece live in the southeast corner of Polk, one in Frostproof and the other in nearby Babson Park. They attend the Harrison School for the Visual and Performing Arts across the county in Lakeland. That means that one has to be up before 4:00 AM, the other just before 5:00 to prepare for the day. They catch the first of three buses they need to get to Lakeland...Frostproof to Lake Wales, to Winter Haven, to Lakeland. You're talking nearly 50 miles, one way, five days a week.

And these two kids wouldn't have it any other way.

There are others at Harrison and the county's two International Baccalaureate schools in Bartow and Haines City that log long distances, but these two are believed to travel the longest distances each day.