With school beginning for a number of districts this week, some are finding the lack of transportation something that was dreaded and now has to be endured, even it does clog up traffic and increase the possibility of accidents.
State Island, N.Y., residents discovered the pains associated with transportation cuts on the first day of school, with middle school and high school students now trying to find a way to make it class after their buses were cut this school year due to budget issues. Some students will be dealing with the walk and/or drive to school for the first time without the yellow bus.
“This is my first time going by myself. I’m a little scared. I like the yellow bus a little better because it’s more safe because you know the bus driver is going to know where you live and everything,” said seventh grader Tomas Surowiecki in a NY1 article.
The budget cuts, which totaled approximately $1.6 million, are affecting not only the students who once took the bus and their parents, but every other motorist that must now deal with a sudden jump in the number of vehicles on the road before and after school. Many parents sat parked a block or so from the Staten Island schools to keep from clogging up traffic until their children phoned them that they were ready to be picked up.
The issue has even gotten the attention of Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer (D-Mid-Island/Brooklyn), who brought a petition signed by about 1,000 Staten Island residents to the steps of City Hall in an attempt to convince Mayor Michael Bloomberg to change his mind. Hyer-Spencer has called the cuts “the most egregious thing in government I have seen,” and accused the mayor of “putting children’s safety at risk.” Hyer-Spencer has also introduced legislation mandating school bus service for seventh- and eighth-graders, which is currently only a policy decision. The legislation will have to wait for the Assembly to reconvene in January.
City council members are taking another approach to the problem by suing the city. Although they lost a decision in the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, causing a restraining order that would have prevented the New York City Department of Education from cutting services was overturned, the trial for the lawsuit is scheduled to begin Sept. 13.
We’ll have to wait to see the outcome of both the suit and the possible pending legislation, but I’m fairly certain the students and parents of Staten Island are in no mood to be holding their breath.
