I keep meaning to post about this cause the situation is crazy but it's only gotten crazier.
So, in Kentucky, there are LOTS of little counties. Actually, their the 4th State in the list of Most Counties. There's one county, Jefferson, that has around 770,000 people. This is over double the next largest county in the state. This is a big deal because schools are managed by the Board of Education of each county. Most counties have multiple schools based on population.
I promise this is important to the point-
Jefferson County has 120 public schools (and about 50 private/religious institutions). Now, there is a Board, with seven individuals elected every four years, so changes go through votes and meetings. However... Recently, people have been left behind in the system. You see, Jefferson has a 60% population of minorities enrolled in the schools there. Last year, the Superintendent (the leader of the Board) gave himself (thru a surprise vote) a 27% raise. This was a shock to most educators and principals, especially when the next month had a disaster.
The raise was in July. August hit and the new year was starting. Our system is bus heavy - Kentucky is large and parents are busy. Getting to school was fine, but something happened at the end of the day.
The transportation department of the whole school system had been failing for years because, simply put, bus drivers get paid shit. A CDL license can pay big money but school drivers have significant wage cuts compared to the rest. They couldn't get anyone to take up the job. And it wasn't a huge shortage at first. 553 drivers, 569 routes. This was the total when they decided to say fuck it. They hired AlphaRoute, a company that uses AI to make routes for school busses. It made things infinitely worse.
The first day of school, the last child to get off the last bus got home at 10 PM.
Children were being dropped at transportation depots to be picked up by different busses. A lot of the time, they were unsupervised. Most of them were shepherded to the wrong bus. A large number of these children were elementary to middle school age, with some as young as kindergarten.
Now, as you can imagine, the police were being called a lot. Parents were rightfully terrified about children who should've been home. There is outrage the likes of which I have never seen.
So. The school cancels the first week and tries again, this time with routes that are designed by humans. They invest in a firm to figure out why the plan failed (what a waste of money) and find out everything they planned for this year of school was a catastrophic failure on every level.
So now, recently, the Superintendent proposed that we just... Get rid of buses. They would get rid of busses for 28 schools, or 15,000 children.
The Mayor of Louisville hated this plan SO MUCH that he suggested slashing the TARC bus program on favor of continuing full transportation. TARC is vital for the homeless and poor neighborhoods in the area (as someone who lived there at one point). Public transportation is extremely sparse, especially on the west end where we need it most.
From every angle, this is so bad and fucked. Also, it's the worst anyone has ever done it. Great job JCPS Board, you fucking cockroaches.
