Summary
School districts across the U.S. are reducing bus services due to driver shortages and shifting transportation responsibilities to families, disproportionately affecting low-income households.
In Chicago, where only 17,000 of 325,000 students are eligible for buses, parents are turning to alternatives like ride-hailing apps.
Startups such as Piggyback Network and HopSkipDrive provide school transportation by connecting parents or contracting directly with districts, offering safety measures like real-time tracking and driver vetting.
Critics warn these solutions don’t fully address systemic inequities, as many families still struggle to afford or access reliable school transportation.
America should really fix their public transport already.
Where I’m from, kids just take the regular bus, not a school specific one, because why should a school have their own bus system, when there’s buses driving around anyways?
Say what’s in it for the private corporations that ran it into the ground and America will listen. Won’t you people stop for one second and think of the shareholders?!
Same goes for where I grew up/live - kids that live far away enough to not be able to walk/bike get free passes for public transit and take that to school.
Time? Safety?
Here kids mostly walk.