What does it say about our society when a mother who lives in subsidized housing while taking college courses to become a teacher is convicted of falsifying records so she could get her two daughters on a school bus destined for a higher-performing school?
That exact scenario has played out recently in Akron, Ohio, where Kelly Willams-Bolar served nine days in jail after she lied about her home address so her daughters could have a shot at a better education. Kevin Huffman writes in the Washington Post that the middle and upper classes are the only ones who truly have school choice. He and others have called it a Rosa Parks moment on the school bus.
The issue has lines drawn in partisan politics as well as race and demographics. Huffman, a former teacher and now with the non-profit Teach for America, cites recent comments by Dan Domenech, the executive director at the American Association of School Administrators, that student achievement is only as good as where the student lives. And this is also tied the the student’s race. I plan on having a similar conversation with Dr. Edgar Hatrick, president of AASA and the superintendent of Loudoun County (Va.) Public Schools — which, coincidentally, serves an area with the highest median income in the nation — at next month’s National Conference on Education in Denver.
This is not new, or I should say new news. For years school districts have embraced income-based student assignments even before the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled desegregation busing or No Child Left Behind and its promises of school choice came about. The thinking went that a family’s income and where they lived has a direct correlation between a family’s income and the quality of education that the student would receive. A recent study from the National Center for Educational Statistics confirmed as much.
Meanwhile, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released a report that shows the United States has fallen to the middle of the pack among other countries when it comes to average reading and science scores and below-average math scores.
In a time when the industry has been railing for opportunities to increase school bus ridership, how can school buses help close the gap? If schools are really serious about improving educational opportunities for all students, especially those who live at or below the poverty level, are they ready to empower pupil transporters with the necessary resources to make sure these students can get to better schools in the first place? If so, I’d venture the guess that pupil transporters would heed the call.
But in doing so, they should also fight to ensure the children who rely on school bus rides and their parents have a voice in the discussion. It’s a fact that, while it would be nice if every K-12 student in America rode the yellow bus, it is simply not realistic. Not all children or their parents need or even want the school bus. But there are millions of others who absolutely rely upon the service, especially those who live in rural and inner-city areas alike, those who don’t come from money, who have disabilities or other special needs such as homelessness.
As a growing number of people and studies indicate, these are true barriers to the United States realizing a path back to the top of educational quality on a global landscape.
