YES! Forced busing can get much worse than a three- to four-hour, sixty-mile daily commute. Elementary-age students are enduring grueling commutes to attend some of the worst schools in the state of Kentucky. They’re getting home after 5 p.m. and bus crashes are becoming a pretty regular news event. This is awful!
Let’s discuss.
On Monday, nine JCPS students were injured in an accident at the Watterson Expressway eastbound and Crittenden Drive. Last I read, they’re doing okay.
Just click on the pic below from WHAS-11 to read the whole story.
Some details about the bus route:
* The students were picked up at King and Young Elementary Schools which are located in the western-most part of Jefferson County.
* They were headed to a bus depot at Moore Traditional High School which is in southern Louisville, close to the Gene Snyder. That’s a pretty long haul for the fourteen kids on board. (I know. Fourteen.)
Here’s where King Elemetary is located in case you’re new to town:
More details:
* Elementary schools dismiss at 3:45 p.m. (and some schools dismiss a little earlier to get a headstart on long bus rides. Shh! It’s a secret! They dismissed even earlier on the first day of school!) and the accident occurred one hour later at 4:45 p.m.
* When the bus crashed, they weren’t even halfway home! Not yet. They had traveled just 11 miles from King, had another 19 miles to go AND they had to board another bus at the depot. We’re looking at a 1.5 hour one-way commute if everything clicks along wreck-free and delay-free. It’s likely that these kids easily have a two-hour commute most days.
How many of you commute two hours a day? Anybody? If so, let’s hear your salary! These kids are being forcibly bused to two extraordinarily low-performing elementary schools. King Elementary ranks 695th out of 704 elementary schools in Kentucky. Young, a magnet school (Really? A magnet?), ranks slightly better at 619th.
Is putting thousands of really young children through all of this BS really worth a diversity agenda that just makes a lot of smug grown-ups feel good?
Let’s do this: At the very least, get rid of forced busing for JCPS’ elementary students and hire two teaching assistants for every classroom in every failing school.
Less transportation, more education.
Education Voodoo 