Father jailed, awaiting charges in boy’s death, beating of mother. Plus, tensions continue between teachers and the LSC school board over new schedules
Today, one brutally sad story, and one story with adults not listening to each other. What is salary increase that will attract enough bus drivers? How do you fund that increase?
Whenever LSC raises bus driver pay, TSC raises theirs higher. I hear that many people take the driver training that LSC pays for, then go drive for TSC.
We might have to have different leadership in the state house to get actual full funding for public schools.
That's exactly how the labor market is supposed to work. If I work at Triple XXX for $B.CC an hour and Raising Cane's offers $A.CC an hour, Triple XXX needs to up their offer. That's good for workers. Also, I don't know how tax laws work here, but every property owner should pay PER UNIT on their property, a certain amount of tax for schools. That way, property owners of apartment owners pay a correct share vs single family home owners.
Don't forget that politicians recently CUT taxes for owners of apartment buildings by something like 75%. Wonder why they would do that? Like I said, we need different people in charge at the statehouse.
If LSC is paying for training and then the new drivers are quitting to go work for TSC, that’s an issue. And one that should be in the contract the drivers sign when they get offered employment and training with LSC.
Tom, I moved here from Louisville, where there was great calamity over student bus service. So much of this sounds familiar, but on a smaller population scale. I don't have any answers. I'm only trying to observe that a refrain I hear in our beautiful state is a demand for resources, but less of willingness to pay for the desired resources. That isn't at all to excuse the tone I've read as directed toward teachers. Not at all. I have no answers. Only observations.
The baby and his mother warrants the most news and anger. Why? Horrible. We must protect mothers and children. Jacob never got a chance to ride a school bus and be taught by a teacher. —Angie
Did we fail little Jacob and his abused mother as a community? The YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter is a refuge only if the abused know of it and can escape their abuser with their children. So very sad. —Angie
Seems the school board thinks the teachers will lose interest in this mess after a while. With contract negotiations coming up, I bet not.
Today, one brutally sad story, and one story with adults not listening to each other. What is salary increase that will attract enough bus drivers? How do you fund that increase?
Whenever LSC raises bus driver pay, TSC raises theirs higher. I hear that many people take the driver training that LSC pays for, then go drive for TSC.
We might have to have different leadership in the state house to get actual full funding for public schools.
That's exactly how the labor market is supposed to work. If I work at Triple XXX for $B.CC an hour and Raising Cane's offers $A.CC an hour, Triple XXX needs to up their offer. That's good for workers. Also, I don't know how tax laws work here, but every property owner should pay PER UNIT on their property, a certain amount of tax for schools. That way, property owners of apartment owners pay a correct share vs single family home owners.
Well, sure, but LSC seems unable to keep up.
Don't forget that politicians recently CUT taxes for owners of apartment buildings by something like 75%. Wonder why they would do that? Like I said, we need different people in charge at the statehouse.
If LSC is paying for training and then the new drivers are quitting to go work for TSC, that’s an issue. And one that should be in the contract the drivers sign when they get offered employment and training with LSC.
I appreciate you approaching community issues in good faith, Brian.
The school bus driver issue is complex - and one that has been a problem even before the pandemic but was really exacerbated then.
This doesn’t apply to all districts, but issues like:
-nontraditional hours that are challenging for adults that have childcare needs
-lack of full time pay and benefits
-pay wages that haven’t kept up over time
-the nature of the job relative to others one could do (Uber, Instacart, etc) in a similar situation
The NYT and Atlantic, among other outlets, have had good features on this. Here’s one by the EPI that’s not behind a paywall just in case.
https://www.epi.org/blog/the-school-bus-driver-shortage-remains-severe-without-job-quality-improvements-workers-children-and-parents-will-suffer/
Tom, I moved here from Louisville, where there was great calamity over student bus service. So much of this sounds familiar, but on a smaller population scale. I don't have any answers. I'm only trying to observe that a refrain I hear in our beautiful state is a demand for resources, but less of willingness to pay for the desired resources. That isn't at all to excuse the tone I've read as directed toward teachers. Not at all. I have no answers. Only observations.
The baby and his mother warrants the most news and anger. Why? Horrible. We must protect mothers and children. Jacob never got a chance to ride a school bus and be taught by a teacher. —Angie
Yes. Tragic. And also, discussing public school policies is about protecting children.
Yes. And hearing about Jacob puts it in perspective.
Did we fail little Jacob and his abused mother as a community? The YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter is a refuge only if the abused know of it and can escape their abuser with their children. So very sad. —Angie
What the actual hell. :(