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Kentucky's largest school district had to cancel class for two days so it could overhaul a 'disastrous' new bus system that left kids on buses until 10 p.m. (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 75 points 3 years ago (18 children)

After clicking on several of the many, many links in that article, that without exception all lead to completely unrelated topics, I'm still left with the question: what was the reason kids were stuck on the bus till 10p.m.?

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  • [–] 63 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    Driver shortage led the county to reconfigure school bus routes trying to "stretch" existing drivers, but the new routes made things even worse. Kids weren't stuck on the bus, they were stuck waiting for buses at bus stops.

    Better articles:

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  • [–] 32 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    If instead of clicking all the links you had read the article, it's explained:

    The Associated Press reported that the school district spent $199,000 to hire the AlphaRoute engineering firm to create a plan that would cut the number of bus routes and stops. According to The Louisville Courier-Journal, the school district changed its bus schedule and start times this year in an attempt to cope with a bus driver shortage.

    They were short on bus drivers, and they hired a firm to come up with a plan that would "make it work". Specifics of the routes aren't given, but I'd imagine that they were completely ridiculous for any kids to have still been on buses six or seven hours after school got out.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    They could've hired at least 3 more drivers with that money.

    Probably 6 with how little they pay

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  • [–] 20 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    They're having trouble finding people who want to do the job for the pay they're offering.

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  • [–] -2 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    *The pay John Q. Public is offering.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Oh, it’s a publicly-funded position? Then the drivers ought to work for free, right? Why, it’s practically welfare if the taxpayer is footing the bill! (/s I hope is obvious)

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Tax payers determine the amount of taxes their school districts receive to pay employees and make capital expenditures. The community needs to offer more pay, be more affordable, or suffer the consequences of under funded districts.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    They weren’t stuck on buses they were waiting on buses to arrive. There were school staff with them.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Damn, I would have ubered myself to pickup my kid if they were still there that long. I know some folks might not have the means, but I personally would have figured something out instead of letting my child wait at school until 10 pm.

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  • [–] -3 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah I find the idea of that happening very unlikely. You'd think the parents would hunting down their kids before that happened.

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  • [–] 23 points 3 years ago

    My kid is in high school, and they communicate about emergencies through text, email, and automated calls. There are lots of jobs, especially low-paying ones, that will not let you check your phone during your shift, and they're certainly not going to be okay with you leaving early to go pick up your kid. If the choice is "leave to pick up kid (who you know is safe with teachers), get fired," versus "leave kid (who you know is safe with teachers), keep job," it's pretty simple math.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    I've initially had the same reaction but on second thought probably not everybody can afford to drop everything and go looking for their kid. Assuming of course they cared, they were told about it etc.

    The linked article is terrible, I've linked a few better ones. Not all kids got home at 10 PM, that was just the last of them.

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    • [–] 51 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    Pay a consultancy $200,000 to design routes. How on earth did they not realise that would go wrong. And all because they would not pay enough to attract new drivers.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    My local school system pays very well to be a bus driver. The issue here isnt pay, it’s the weird split-up day and the fact that kids, by and large, are assholes. No one wants to deal with that, even for a good livable wage.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I mean… if nobody wants to do a job for the pay allotted, then the pay is by definition too low. You can make other changes that bring the acceptable pay range down (make kids not be assholes or something idk) but in the end it’s always about the pay at the end of the day.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    That's true. But the pay isn't "low", as such. Just still unacceptable

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    Seems like arguing semantics. "Low" is relative. There are people who argue that living in minimum wage is 100% possible by oneself. People perform truly shit jobs that greatly endanger their lives simply because the pay is right.

    Capitalists want a market economy right until the moment labor is treated the same way.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago

    I'm a bus driver and I fucking love the split-up day since the break in the middle gives me a chance to go for a bike ride, have lunch and a nap before going back for the afternoon run. But the wage is really not "livable" even though the hourly rate is decent, since we only get 4-5 hours of work a day.

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    • [–] 41 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (3 children)

    I don't know about taxes in Kentucky but I'm assuming people in the state want to pay as little in taxes as possible. This is the result. How will they pay bus drivers higher salaries to attract them and hire more drivers without raising revenue via higher taxes? I'm going to make a wild guess that teacher and school staff pay is also terrible in Kentucky.

    Also, the articles mention that school staff is waiting with the kids. So they are out at the bus stops till 930pm? Are they getting paid overtime for this? Do they have children of their own?

    What have Mitchell McConnell and Rand Paul said about this situation in their state?

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    • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Sounds like kidnapping

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    [+] -11 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    This is weird. While I was watching my daughter, a show came on telling children what to do in just such a case..... basically, just beep the horn like mad person and this should help. I though "this really happening that much kids got a TV show explaining how to escape a locked school bus?" Now i see this article, crazy.

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