A $70 million dollar transportation budget and Duval County Public Schools cannot afford to bus kids living less than a mile and a half away to and from school.
Apparently leaving 1,100 middle and high school kids stranded is the best way for the district to allegedly save between $250,000 and $500,000. So, which is it? Is the potential savings a quarter of a million dollars or half a million dollars? How do they not know?
Also, if DCPS is really spending $70 million a year on transportation, why would they even consider leaving more than a thousand students stranded to save such a small amount of money? Isn’t one of the biggest issues the district currently dealing with is how to stop hemorrhaging students to local charter and private schools?
The decision seems counterintuitive.
The school board voted 5-2 in May on the new busing policy, forcing sixth through 12th grade students living within a mile and a half of school to find alternative transportation to and from school this academic year, beginning Aug, 12.
Those living within a two-mile radius of school are still eligible for transportation.
Concerned parents reached out to a local news station to voice their concerns. One mother pointed out, the school bus would pass by her child because they live 1.3 miles from the school, while kids living in the same neighborhood just a few blocks away are still able to get a safe ride to and from school.
Other major concerns are safety and practicality.
The mother who lives 1.3 miles from her child’s school lives in the Oceanway area.
The same news station bringing our attention to this story is also the same news outlet that recently reported a rise in crime in the same area of town in 2023.
According to News4Jax’s record keeping, “89 homicides were reported in just six of Jacksonville’s 34 ZIP codes last year – that’s 56% of the city’s total number of homicides.”
Homicides by ZIP code:
- 31 homicides, which is 20% of all the homicides reported in Jacksonville, were committed in the 32209 area in 2023.
- 32206: 12 homicides
- 32210: 14 homicides
- 32208: 11 homicides
- 32218: 11 homicides
- 32244: 10 homicides
No doubt those neighborhoods also contain some of the district’s 196 schools, which children attend for large portions of the day. The School Board now expects kids as young as 11 to walk through those areas twice a day just to sit inside outdated classrooms receiving, according to reports, a sub-par education from a teacher that may or may not be allowed to say gay.
And the district still has no idea why more than 10,000 students have sought out greener educational pastures.
Let’s not forget that last month, the mayor and the federal government’s assistant secretary of health held a press conference in Jacksonville’s main library to explain to us how hot it is outside. An official at the press conference seriously warned the audience 2023 could be the coolest year we will ever experience. Read more: https://eyeonjacksonville.com/bidens-trans-top-doc-helps-jax-stay-cool/
If it is so dangerously hot outside that we need a mayoral press conference to remind us, then why in the world would School Board members force kids to walk to school while dodging bullets and trying to avoid a potential heat stroke all before the morning bell.
Board members should ask themselves… would they let their 11-year-old child walk a mile and a half in 90-degree heat carrying a backpack, twice a day without supervision? If any of them answer yes, they are full of it. I won’t even walk to the end of my driveway in this heat, I couldn’t imagine a child walking for up to 45 minutes while dressed for school.
What a terrible way to start a day of learning for a child.
Above nothing else, I find it hard to believe the same city that lived through the horrific death of Somer Thompson, could even consider cutting funding to school transportation.
Honestly, a few hundred thousand dollars is nothing compared to all the waste within the district.
School Board Member Cindy Pearson says the new policy allows for “some cost savings,” while also “balancing safety.”
According to AccuWeather, the RealFeel temperature in the shade will feel like 102 degrees for the first day of school.
Let’s hope the 1,100 kids walking to and from school the week after next in 100-degree heat, understand how their unsupervised miserable walk to and from school helps elected grown-ups pretend they are safely saving money.
One response to “DCPS’ $70 million transportation budget leaves kids stranded”
When discussing how the outcome of School Board or the City Council or any other policy/law body’s vote on any measure, it is instructional to tell us who voted how . . . a simple vote total does not tell us how people on the respective bodies vote.