this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
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Summary

School districts across the U.S. are reducing bus services due to driver shortages and shifting transportation responsibilities to families, disproportionately affecting low-income households.

In Chicago, where only 17,000 of 325,000 students are eligible for buses, parents are turning to alternatives like ride-hailing apps.

Startups such as Piggyback Network and HopSkipDrive provide school transportation by connecting parents or contracting directly with districts, offering safety measures like real-time tracking and driver vetting.

Critics warn these solutions don’t fully address systemic inequities, as many families still struggle to afford or access reliable school transportation.

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[–] SeekPie@lemm.ee 41 points 6 days ago (4 children)

America should really fix their public transport already.

Where I'm from, kids just take the regular bus, not a school specific one, because why should a school have their own bus system, when there's buses driving around anyways?

[–] modus@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago

America should really fix their public transport already.

Say what's in it for the private corporations that ran it into the ground and America will listen. Won't you people stop for one second and think of the shareholders?!

[–] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 days ago

Same goes for where I grew up/live - kids that live far away enough to not be able to walk/bike get free passes for public transit and take that to school.

[–] ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk 5 points 6 days ago

Time? Safety?

Here kids mostly walk.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Out here in the ranch lands school buses are an absolute. Kids have to be up before dawn to get loaded up for a 5-10 mile trip one way. Parents could do it but they would have to drop the kids at the schools a couple hours before they open in order for those parents to make it to work on time

[–] SeekPie@lemm.ee 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But why should the bus be the school's responsibility when you can have regular buses that take kids to school while also moving everyone else to where they want to go?

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Out here your so called "regular" buses are anything but. They require an appointment with a set time in advance and last I looked was $50 per person per trip. Not the best idea. Given that here in Texas a tax cut was passed last year that reduced school taxes for many districts, I can see some of them adding fee for use to their fleets.

[–] SeekPie@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Damn, where I live, 1 hr bus ticket is 1.50€ for non-residents, 1€ for residents and 0.60€ for everyone under 18 and free for kids under 7 and pensioners (also free for families with 4 or more kids) that come every 10-20min (every 10 min in the mornings and after work/school, 20 min at any other time).

There are also period tickets, like unlimited rides for 30€ per month or 225€ per year (which also have discounts for residents).

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

So it is. Our two worlds are just that different

[–] SeekPie@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago

Yeah. I've never been to the US, so don't really know how it is there. To me it sounds like you guys have a lot to improve in the public transportation sector.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 12 points 5 days ago

We really will sacrifice a thousand children before letting a single CEO get a papercut.

[–] LANIK2000@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago

Shortage of bus drivers solved by a fleet of regular drivers. Lol. I'm at a lose for words at how badly managed the US is.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 40 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Will taxes that used to cover bussing go down? Or is that money just going into pockets while the common person pays even more to get their kids to school?

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

Well, we just voted down all the levies to build new schools. So it's not like the schools are getting that money.

(If funding stays the same but students double, they have less money.)

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 11 points 6 days ago

Not in Chicago that's for sure. The city where you have to pay an 'entertainment tax' on your Netflix subscription.

[–] mx_smith@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

In Philly they pay the parents to take their kids to school

[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 27 points 6 days ago

This is why this family is getting into politics. Campaigning starts March 4th. People won't vote for the school levies and much of the state money is going to charter schools, but gotta start somewhere.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Oh well that's gonna be perfectly safe yep

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I hope they don't just use Uber or Lyft. Otherwise we might see a sudden explosion of new driver accounts who happen to be online at 7 a.m. on school days only.

[–] Acters@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Oh you bet this is what will happen. I've been seeing schools with a car drive line purposely built for people to snake their cars around before dropping off a kid. Massive amount of asphalt and suspension destroying speed tables/bumps and incredulously slow. So kids need to wake up much earlier to just even enter the school instead of the incredibly faster school bus. Why is this becoming more preferable? Well people are dumb and rather not buy fancier school buses that help the community and rather go into massive amounts of debt to not help "freeloaders" and feel not poor from the status symbol a car seemingly has for some good forsaken reason...

Now they are just going to get an Uber or Lyft ride to not deal with the unbearable time it takes to drop off a kid. Used to be only rich kids doing "skipping the bus" , now it's everyone, and now no one is "rich" . Just like that meme from the Incredibles movie, where syndrome said a similar phrase.

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