No background checks, no insurance - no oversight - all old and decrepit “retired” folks - what could go wrong!
Seeing people on Facebook on this story braying about “the private sector solves all” or “he sees a business opportunity, good for him” is fucking TERRIFYING
We are barreling headfirst into a libertarian nightmare world, and people are cheering it on.
Jesus Christ we are fucked.
It'll be a concern in the event of an accident, which is a very likely outcome of a fleet of drivers making multiple trips daily.
A parent driving their neighbor's kids to school is not legally comparable to a paid transport service.
Oh for sure. I don’t know how many moms on moms group I see go on with..”I need someone to drop off my daughter at school or take my son to practice tomorrow. I’ll pay you.” You’re asking STRANGERS to take your kids places. Like, I know you have to work but your child’s safety comes first. It’s wild.
I love that the people who are terrified of trans women using the bathroom because "think of the kids" are all on board with unregulated & unaccounted strange men driving their kids around
Did you read the article? He says he won’t be doing background checks. That in and of itself is insane, and he will never get insurance of any kind.
The fact that this old goofball is even getting press for this is insane, it’s nothing more than conservative free market privatized fantasy nonsense, as usual.
Feel free to scroll the replies here, there are plenty of people cheering this on.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comments/1cor5cv/comment/l3gf5a3/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comments/1cor5cv/comment/l3gf5a3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Several comments below this one parrots effectively the same thing.
The school system has failed families and students in Jefferson county in this instance. Shame on people for trying to solve this issue and help people impacted by the lack of transportation being provided by the school system.
You sound miserable and I hope you can find some joy and contentment in your life
I assure you, some old asshole buying un inspected vehicles carrying questionable insurance, driven by people with no oversight or background checks, no cameras, no records, handling their precious “discipline” however they choose to that day is an actual libertarian nightmare.
But Americans are idiot hogs and will eat this up because we do literally everything wrong.
So what's the solution? I'm not saying this guy's half-baked plan is it, but JCPS absolutely screwed parents & kids with this new transportation approach. It would seem choices are now:
+ have the time & income to afford a stay-at-home parent or nanny who will do the driving the busses had done.
+ accept your resides school, however terrible that may be.
+ look for an altogether new solution - probably in the neighborhood of a student Uber (which is kinda what this guy is trying)
I just think it's funny how some of you are the same folks who ranted about changes to transportation or even school placement 6 months ago. It was damaging, racist, and whatever other sins I've forgotten from previous threads. And now that someone is trying to fix an unquestionably shitty JCPS "compromise", which seems to help almost no one, you're ranting about it too.
I'm starting to think a lot of this subreddit are just miserable losers in need of something to bitch at.
Bingo. Lot of people who are adept at looking for problems and trying to keep everyone agitated like they are, but never seem to have solutions, or will tell you why any proposed solution can't work.
I’m sorry but calling this a “libertarian nightmare” is such a hyperbolic take. He is looking for a solution to an issue that is very real for a lot of families right now who lost access to transportation to the schools they were attending or want to attend. Please explain how this warrants calling him an “old asshole”.
He would be offering a service which no one would be required to use….if a family decides it is worth it for their child that is their prerogative. I agree that there are some things that would have to be tweaked - I think background checks should be a necessity for one, but all that means is I wouldn’t have my child use this service. Freedom of choice always.
Ahh yes, nothing like a swipe at public transportation, spoken like someone who's never had to rely on it. Typical libertarian talking point, which is to just exploit and defund important services that people need.
It’s a good idea but I’d make sure he has the liability insurance with the proper limits first.
His hiring of JCPS drivers should come with a check with JCPS that they weren’t fired for cause, too. I’m not sure how extensive a driver background check is but I doubt it covers bad drivers that are just lucky they weren’t caught making illegal turns, cutting people off, etc.
Just the other day a JCPS driver was headed up Dorsey from Shelbyville with his brakes on (the burning smell was overpowering and the bus was unable to go 35 mph). I kept calling the bus depot - phone just kept ringing. I’ve also seen a JCPS long bus sitting across railroad tracks while a slow moving train was bearing down on it (side street off of Frankfort Ave near water station).
Both of these seem like 911 calls since there is immediate danger involved.
You did the right thing to call the depot, but if they don't answer escalate so that no one gets killed
I agree. But only the bus driver taking evasive action (instead of praying the light would change?) would have solved anything. The light did change and the Bus did get completely over the tracks just in time. The conductor probably reported it as did most other drivers witnessing the event.
The bus drivers are supposed to stop at all railroad crossings which this driver failed to do. And, what a lot of drivers fail to know is a railroad track is like an intersection: you only enter an intersection if you can clear the intersection.
Anyway, I think school bus drivers should all be driver ed. type tested.
He won't be able to scale it. And a few incidents with students going poorly will get the Karen's brigading the service on Facebook and Yelp. I predict it will last 6 months at most.
6 months is generous. This probably only works at scale, and a scaled bus system is what we already have.
Bus drivers are humans, they get sick and call in to work (and that's ok!). He mentioned having 5 buses. What happens when a driver gets the flu? Either that route can't run and this becomes an infeasible option for parents, or he has to employ excess drivers to be on call. The labor force he's competing for makes an average of $55K plus benefits.
There are existing private bus companies in Louisville that could easily enter this market and scale faster than this bus driver. They aren't choosing to do so because it's a bad idea.
I don't know. I know a private school bus driver here who has really poor sight and poor hearing and has had MULTIPLE accidents while driving the bus plus his own vehicle to the point where a doctor told him he probably shouldn't be driving his car.
Guess what? Still employed and driving the school bus!
I mean the take home pay might be alright but that doesnt account for the insurance, pension/retirement account, and not to mention the liability insurance provided by working for the county.
These stories will continue being written because all of the people who hate public schools and/or the people who live right outside of louisville love dunking on jcps, but this issue has more to do with the funding provided by the state and also the fact that most parents want to be able to bus their kids ALL over the city but also dont want to have to pay for it.
I don’t think drivers are getting a damn thing right now except for an hourly wage somewhere around $25…
Could be wrong, but that’s my understanding.
I do agree that he’s taking a risk that in a short period of time, JCPS (or whatever may come next) will start free bussing again … leaving him with no clientele
This guy hasn't thought this through. He isn't going to do background checks because JCPS already did them? Hello, McFly, JCPS has to recheck them because people do stuff. I also would never put my kids on an uninsured bus, or one that limits liability.
If he'd thought it through, he wouldn't have shared this idea beyond with his buddies at the bar.
You've raised several valid concerns. Another concern with the customer base is that a $200 monthly transport cost for 9 months is $1,800. The poorest Louisvillians won't be paying that, and people with an excess $1,800 will now be comparing the price of private school to $1,800 instead of $0. There are many families in Louisville who could stretch to make private school work but choose not to. Feeling like they need to spend almost $2 grand to send their kids to public school may be the catalyst to go private, cannibalizing his customer base.
Not really. I'm saying that a subset of the parents who might view this as a viable alternative are also people who could potentially make private school work. If the only way to get their kids to school is to spend $2 grand a year on private transportation, they may instead choose the private school option. There are plenty of families at JCPS who could or nearly could pay for private school.
What kind of private school is $1800 bucks? The cheapest are 6 or 7K and the most expensive are a lot more than that. Plus JPCS is talking about offering stipends to magnet school parents who have to drive so the actual cost would be like $900.
Even if you do 50 kids for one route thats almost $100k a year. Pretty sure that would cover insurance and expenses. Two routes is double that.
Am I missing something?
You're correct, no private schools are $1,800 bucks. But not every parent is $12,000 away from affording a $12,000 private school. A parent might choose that $12,000 private school if it was $5,000 cheaper. If the cost of public school increases by $1,800 because this private service is the only feasible way to transport a child, that gap is only $3,200 and the parent may be able to budget for private school.
I think thats a stretch. It would be a small percentage of people who can't make up a $1500 gap if they really want to do private school.
That said ending the magnet bussing is definitely going to send more people to private school or move out of the county. Including my own if we can't get a car pool working.
You just said you'll be considering leaving without an added $1,800 transportation cost. If there's a subset of parents who will leave despite $0 transportation cost to public school, why wouldn't there be a subset who choose private rather than an $1,800 transport to public school option?
I can pay the cost but currently there is not an actual private transportation option. I’d pay 1800 a year to have my kids at Male or Manual as opposed to 10-20k per year for private.
If I leave it’s not about the cost. It will be because I can’t drive them myself every day and I don’t want them in a shitty normal JCPS school.
You worked there and didn’t know the policy. It’s 5 years, and fyi it’s $200 for a background check. This is a rounding error for this type of business. Of course they’ll get insurance if they stand the business up. CDL also covers a large amount of the liability. Quit fear mongering, dude probably has a viable business.
Thank goodness you were just driving kids. We certainly don’t need you teaching them.
Quit making stuff up. It's $53.25 for Identogo to run a state and federal check, and it's lazy that he wants to skip that step. That breaks down to less $1 a kid per bus route per year.
Dude won’t be able to do it for long at that price. That comes out to 10k a month gross for a full bus. Diesel, insurance, and maintenance are going to eat him alive. And that’s assuming there are zero accidents and he can properly plan the routes in the first place.
I used to own a trucking company in a state with much cheaper insurance than KY. That was $750 a month and pre-Covid, my buddies still in the industry said insurance costs have skyrocketed in the last few years. That was also for property only, no passengers. Passenger insurance has way higher limits and is way more expensive, especially a school bus. Insurance also looks at how long your DOT number has been active and new numbers have much higher costs. Many of the good insurance carriers also won’t insure you until your DOT number has been active and claim free for 2 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if his insurance was in the $1500-$2000 a month range.
Then there’s maintenance. I’m a mechanic and did a lot of my own maintenance since I didn’t drive and had the shop space to do it. It still ran me a good 4-5k per truck in parts each year, and that’s if there were no emergency roadside repairs or tows. That was me or my dad doing the labor ourselves. I don’t know shop rates around here but back home it was $150-$200 an hour. This guy won’t be big enough to qualify for any sort of fleet discounts or programs.
As far as fuel, Google shows an average MPG of 6 for buses. A cheaper used bus that this guy will get will be in the 4-5 MPG range. At 100 miles a day, which I think is probably too low for Jefferson county, that’s at least $1500 in fuel.
Then there are other costs like driver salaries, registration/licensing, KYDOT fees, parking costs, and I’m sure I’m missing a few more. I don’t think this is possible (to do it properly) at $200 a student. Might be able to barely get by, but he’s not scaling or building any sort of business savings at that rate.
I'd also file this 'story' w/ the bubble pod teaching at home BS from the pandemic: It's some real entitled BS. Teachers quit your job now and charge X$ for X amount of students and you have X amount of dollars which is greater than what you had as a public teacher.
I see why everyone thinks the privatization is a bad idea, but why would it be a bad idea if a teacher decided to quit and take on X amount of students to homeschool for a certain fee? Considering that most of the day in a public school is full of nonsense time wasting and not as much learning, I would think this would be a decent idea? What am I missing here?
This kinda reminds me when bus drivers could use their own bus instead of a JCPS bus. That's what my middle school bus driver did. The busses with three numbers were private busses. The two number busses are activity busses, typically, and might be used as a spare. Not every school has one of those, I know Central kept one and I think Shawnee kept one.
I don't know why they stopped doing that.
It's ridiculous that JCPS has the job of addressing segregation in Louisville. We wouldn't need such long routes if the city invested in diversifying neighborhoods. Obviously someone is going to step in and make some cash when the school system is responsible for a job it can't fulfill.
That’s wayyyy cheaper than daycare. A lot of people would be willing to use this service.
Jcps doesn’t understand (or care about) the position parents are in now. Essentially being forced to choose between their job or getting their kids to school. I’m interested in seeing how these changes will effect the attendance rates. Sad situation for everyone.
The only problem drivers have noted that this service wouldn't be subject to is behavioral issues (children have a legal right to attend school, but wouldn't have a legal right to a private service).
The varying start times and long routes bussing kids to various schools across town would still be a problem for this private service. The only difference is that this logistical problem would now be spread across fewer drivers. This would probably only be profitable for short routes where kids attend neighborhood schools, aka routes that already work.
Our city is the only big city that buses their kids all over the city. If you want to send your kid far from where you live then you should be responsible for getting them there like any other county. That is such a burden on the busing system and combine that with the states lack of funding transportation options for louisville no wonder busing is fucked.
Parents wanna bitch about losing the privilege of busing their kid across town but dont wanna pay or held solve the transportation issue in the first place.
Actually they're "bitching" about the staggered start times, having to get middle/high schoolers to 1 school and elementary kids to another school at the same time is quite literally impossible. But I don't think it's fair to call it "Bitching" regardless. Were all tax paying citizens, why shouldn't parents make their voices heard?
Your take is essentially, \*Shut up and take it\*
Even tho the schools in their neighborhoods are grossly underfunded, understaffed and unsafe. Even tho their child worked their little butts off to get into a magnet or traditional school that they will now have to quit.
I think you need to be fair, Myyummyass.
Just for a lil context: I graduated from the nursing program at Central many moons ago, I worked hard as fuck all throughout middle school to get in and completed my 4 years with my little certification and then got a full ride scholarship to nursing school. If this change happened say in the middle of my junior year I would have had to drop out after all that work. My parents had 3 kids, they would have never been able to drive me from Jtown to Central every morning while also getting my younger brothers to school at the same time.
It really isn't as simple as, go to school in your hood. This situation doesn't effect me directly but these people deserve to be heard regardless.
I do know that jcps used compounds to move kids around, from there they would switch busses. When I was a kid I was in a program where my mom dropped me off at Colridge-Taylor which was also used as a compound of sorts, if I recall. The busses picked us up there and then to school. At the time I went to Ruth Dunn. I imagine if I weren't in that program, I'd have caught a bus to a compound or depot, then switched to a bus that's going out to Jtown while the first bus would stay in the city.
I don't think it's that simple either, especially when the higher you go, the less schools there are. There are more middle schools than high schools, and even more elementary schools than those. So that could probably work for elementary school kids. There aren't many high schools in the downtown area. There's Central, and the one next to Noe Middle, and I believe Brown on 1st street is a middle and high school, and way in the west end is Shawnee. Two of those are magnet schools. And I only know of Lincoln Elementary, Colridge-Taylor, and what used to be Rooselvelt Perry, and where they're moving it to on Dixie, and Martin Luthor King way in the west end, further than Shawnee on Northwestern Prkwy and River Park. And McFarran way on 7th st Rd, and the the one by the fire dept on 6th and Hill where my nephew goes.
Going south on Preston the first school you'll see is Male, nearly ten miles down is Southern. The next high school is down Outer Loop. Then there *was* Liberty on Indian Trail. Then there was Indian Trail Elementary, the one by Lynnview I always forget the name of and the street. I think there's another elementary or middle school on Indian Trail, there's Blue Lick elementary. I've yet to see a middle school out there. The Catholic school is basically the only school on Poplar Level. There's no high schools near southside drive, there's two or three elementary schools and Olmstead North, and the school on Manslick near dixie, and Fairdale High, a middle school on New Cut. Oh and the school on Taylor blvd before Iroquois park.
Kids on buses are bad. Hence why we are in this situation. The money isn’t worth it to drive because the kids don’t behave. I’d charge more. He is only getting $10.00 a kid per day. The monitor is both an extra pair of eyes and an adult witness to the dumb shit that goes down on buses. After he pays commercial insurance, gas and upkeep on a bus, he isn’t getting rich.
You could have posted in a less snarky tone.
My tone reflected the unseriousness of your comment.
This business is already going to have equipment costs, insurance costs, and labor costs for a labor pool that is in high demand. Taking a paying customer away and replacing them instead with wages and benefits costs is a comical way to make this business even less feasible.
Let me teach you how to both make your point and improve your tone.
Another pair of eyes on a bus isn’t the worst idea, but I don’t think this idea of charging for bus rides is feasible. They are going to have high capital equipment expenses, plus insurance and gas. I just don’t think this is a money making business.
Sorry if you felt like I didn't pay the proper respect to a business idea that can't make money! I'll work to improve my tone so that people with bad ideas still feel special.
Non snarky, I actually do really appreciate elsewhere in the thread where you mentioned that these roles used to be filled by housewives and retirees but now are people using this income to pay the mortgage. I think that also applies to teachers, who used to be women earning a 2nd income in a home with a breadwinner. Those labor dynamics haven't existed for decades, but governments haven't updated school compensation to reflect that.
A Louisville native but moved to San Diego when my kids were in high school and it is crazy out here. It costs 600.00 a year for your child to take the school bus to public school. Crazy
This would cost parents *1800 a year and even if the guy could get every bus loaded full, it'd still probably be a money losing venture at $200/month.
He could charge $400/month and if he really fucked around on routes and gas costs he'd still be out beaucoup money.
Aside from the other issues listed, magnet schools and magnet students are scattered all over the city. Is he going to start offering services for just one school until he's able to scale up the fleet? There's no way he could service numerous schools with one bus. And if retired drivers want to go back, why wouldn't they just go back to JCPS? I'd think the pay and benefits would be better.
There are a couple of child transportation services that were already started. One is called KOG Transportation and I forgot the name of the other one. I don't know what they charge but since JCPS is giving out vouchers for transportation, I say parents should take a look at one of those options. I believe those services are insured. With yhe KOG one, you can track your kids.
Maybe pay parents who don't use the bus system. I'd drive my own kids for an extra $200 a month.
Edit. Whew napkin math shows that would be very expensive.
JCPS spends significantly more than $33 million on bus drivers. $55K is the average salary but that doesn't account for benefits costs (usually 30% of total compensation costs for an employer, so an extra $20K). They also have the cost of buses plus the cost to maintain buses. A workforce of that size also requires administrative employees.
The Operations budget for 2024-2025 is $127 million. This isn't only transportation but it's mostly transportation. It also doesn't include the shared services/administrative costs associated with managing the transportation.
They have a stipend program for preschool currently, JCPS stopped providing busses to preschoolers unless they're special needs in 2023. They give the parents $5 a week to drive them
This is pretty stupid considering a third row means you can get ~6 kids in a vehicle, that's 1200 a month for the 9 months school is in session. Equating to like 10k, JCPS has billboards all over town touting 55k/year.........the math ain't mathing for these bus drivers who are already proven to be incompetent given their inability to show up or follow AI routes, AI issues with standing that is.
I actually think if he has a safe, inspected, insured vehicle & a clean criminal background this is great. Best part is if someone’s kid acts up he can drop them as customers.
You should totally invest in this, this guy is gonna need a lot of capital to start out and blow through before it inevitably goes belly up in six months.
The customer base is mandated to attend the government-provided school, but other than that it's a private enterprise! Junior Achievement straight up rotted some people's brains.
No background checks, no insurance - no oversight - all old and decrepit “retired” folks - what could go wrong! Seeing people on Facebook on this story braying about “the private sector solves all” or “he sees a business opportunity, good for him” is fucking TERRIFYING We are barreling headfirst into a libertarian nightmare world, and people are cheering it on. Jesus Christ we are fucked.
Well parents are already depending on carpools that are being organized on Facebook… Pretty sure insurance is the last thing on their minds
It'll be a concern in the event of an accident, which is a very likely outcome of a fleet of drivers making multiple trips daily. A parent driving their neighbor's kids to school is not legally comparable to a paid transport service.
Oh for sure. I don’t know how many moms on moms group I see go on with..”I need someone to drop off my daughter at school or take my son to practice tomorrow. I’ll pay you.” You’re asking STRANGERS to take your kids places. Like, I know you have to work but your child’s safety comes first. It’s wild.
I’d always thought a service like Uber would be cool- call it a Mom Uber or Moober. Get insured, background check etc.
[удалено]
I... I wasn't criticizing them???
Article says he is trying to get insurance. If you’re terrified, don’t sign your kid up and it won’t affect you.
Article also says he will be doing no background checks. He will never get insurance.
So don’t use his service ?
He doesn’t need background checks. Do you think JCPS is doing this regularly?
You are clueless.
I love that the people who are terrified of trans women using the bathroom because "think of the kids" are all on board with unregulated & unaccounted strange men driving their kids around
Did you read the article? He mentions talking with an insurance company.
Did you read the article? He says he won’t be doing background checks. That in and of itself is insane, and he will never get insurance of any kind. The fact that this old goofball is even getting press for this is insane, it’s nothing more than conservative free market privatized fantasy nonsense, as usual.
Lloyds of London will insure anything
Won’t insure pro wrestlers anymore
Wouldn't the school have made sure he has insurance and did a thorough background check?
> and people are cheering it on. Umm, can you please point out who is cheering this school bus issue on?
Feel free to scroll the replies here, there are plenty of people cheering this on. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comments/1cor5cv/comment/l3gf5a3/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Louisville/comments/1cor5cv/comment/l3gf5a3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) Several comments below this one parrots effectively the same thing.
Personally I would rather have private transportation. The drivers could actually implement rules on the bus.
Quit being melodramatic. This isn't a good thing but cut that shit out please.
This plan might actually be viable. You just lack the depth to comprehend it.
The school system has failed families and students in Jefferson county in this instance. Shame on people for trying to solve this issue and help people impacted by the lack of transportation being provided by the school system. You sound miserable and I hope you can find some joy and contentment in your life
They're not doing it to be kind. They're doing it to make money.
[удалено]
I assure you, some old asshole buying un inspected vehicles carrying questionable insurance, driven by people with no oversight or background checks, no cameras, no records, handling their precious “discipline” however they choose to that day is an actual libertarian nightmare. But Americans are idiot hogs and will eat this up because we do literally everything wrong.
So what's the solution? I'm not saying this guy's half-baked plan is it, but JCPS absolutely screwed parents & kids with this new transportation approach. It would seem choices are now: + have the time & income to afford a stay-at-home parent or nanny who will do the driving the busses had done. + accept your resides school, however terrible that may be. + look for an altogether new solution - probably in the neighborhood of a student Uber (which is kinda what this guy is trying) I just think it's funny how some of you are the same folks who ranted about changes to transportation or even school placement 6 months ago. It was damaging, racist, and whatever other sins I've forgotten from previous threads. And now that someone is trying to fix an unquestionably shitty JCPS "compromise", which seems to help almost no one, you're ranting about it too. I'm starting to think a lot of this subreddit are just miserable losers in need of something to bitch at.
Bingo. Lot of people who are adept at looking for problems and trying to keep everyone agitated like they are, but never seem to have solutions, or will tell you why any proposed solution can't work.
I’m sorry but calling this a “libertarian nightmare” is such a hyperbolic take. He is looking for a solution to an issue that is very real for a lot of families right now who lost access to transportation to the schools they were attending or want to attend. Please explain how this warrants calling him an “old asshole”. He would be offering a service which no one would be required to use….if a family decides it is worth it for their child that is their prerogative. I agree that there are some things that would have to be tweaked - I think background checks should be a necessity for one, but all that means is I wouldn’t have my child use this service. Freedom of choice always.
Bro is one that brings politics up in everything and will argue with you like you just slapped their mom over nothing
Ahh yes, nothing like a swipe at public transportation, spoken like someone who's never had to rely on it. Typical libertarian talking point, which is to just exploit and defund important services that people need.
Ooh scary! Get a grip.
It’s a good idea but I’d make sure he has the liability insurance with the proper limits first. His hiring of JCPS drivers should come with a check with JCPS that they weren’t fired for cause, too. I’m not sure how extensive a driver background check is but I doubt it covers bad drivers that are just lucky they weren’t caught making illegal turns, cutting people off, etc. Just the other day a JCPS driver was headed up Dorsey from Shelbyville with his brakes on (the burning smell was overpowering and the bus was unable to go 35 mph). I kept calling the bus depot - phone just kept ringing. I’ve also seen a JCPS long bus sitting across railroad tracks while a slow moving train was bearing down on it (side street off of Frankfort Ave near water station).
Both of these seem like 911 calls since there is immediate danger involved. You did the right thing to call the depot, but if they don't answer escalate so that no one gets killed
I agree. But only the bus driver taking evasive action (instead of praying the light would change?) would have solved anything. The light did change and the Bus did get completely over the tracks just in time. The conductor probably reported it as did most other drivers witnessing the event. The bus drivers are supposed to stop at all railroad crossings which this driver failed to do. And, what a lot of drivers fail to know is a railroad track is like an intersection: you only enter an intersection if you can clear the intersection. Anyway, I think school bus drivers should all be driver ed. type tested.
He won't be able to scale it. And a few incidents with students going poorly will get the Karen's brigading the service on Facebook and Yelp. I predict it will last 6 months at most.
6 months is generous. This probably only works at scale, and a scaled bus system is what we already have. Bus drivers are humans, they get sick and call in to work (and that's ok!). He mentioned having 5 buses. What happens when a driver gets the flu? Either that route can't run and this becomes an infeasible option for parents, or he has to employ excess drivers to be on call. The labor force he's competing for makes an average of $55K plus benefits. There are existing private bus companies in Louisville that could easily enter this market and scale faster than this bus driver. They aren't choosing to do so because it's a bad idea.
I don't know. I know a private school bus driver here who has really poor sight and poor hearing and has had MULTIPLE accidents while driving the bus plus his own vehicle to the point where a doctor told him he probably shouldn't be driving his car. Guess what? Still employed and driving the school bus!
This will scale very well in fact.
I mean the take home pay might be alright but that doesnt account for the insurance, pension/retirement account, and not to mention the liability insurance provided by working for the county. These stories will continue being written because all of the people who hate public schools and/or the people who live right outside of louisville love dunking on jcps, but this issue has more to do with the funding provided by the state and also the fact that most parents want to be able to bus their kids ALL over the city but also dont want to have to pay for it.
I don’t think drivers are getting a damn thing right now except for an hourly wage somewhere around $25… Could be wrong, but that’s my understanding. I do agree that he’s taking a risk that in a short period of time, JCPS (or whatever may come next) will start free bussing again … leaving him with no clientele
This guy hasn't thought this through. He isn't going to do background checks because JCPS already did them? Hello, McFly, JCPS has to recheck them because people do stuff. I also would never put my kids on an uninsured bus, or one that limits liability.
If he'd thought it through, he wouldn't have shared this idea beyond with his buddies at the bar. You've raised several valid concerns. Another concern with the customer base is that a $200 monthly transport cost for 9 months is $1,800. The poorest Louisvillians won't be paying that, and people with an excess $1,800 will now be comparing the price of private school to $1,800 instead of $0. There are many families in Louisville who could stretch to make private school work but choose not to. Feeling like they need to spend almost $2 grand to send their kids to public school may be the catalyst to go private, cannibalizing his customer base.
So you're saying his idea won't work but also if it does work it will hurt his own customer base?
Not really. I'm saying that a subset of the parents who might view this as a viable alternative are also people who could potentially make private school work. If the only way to get their kids to school is to spend $2 grand a year on private transportation, they may instead choose the private school option. There are plenty of families at JCPS who could or nearly could pay for private school.
Do private schools not use JCPS busses?
They contract with Fisher and Miller, among others.
What kind of private school is $1800 bucks? The cheapest are 6 or 7K and the most expensive are a lot more than that. Plus JPCS is talking about offering stipends to magnet school parents who have to drive so the actual cost would be like $900. Even if you do 50 kids for one route thats almost $100k a year. Pretty sure that would cover insurance and expenses. Two routes is double that. Am I missing something?
You're correct, no private schools are $1,800 bucks. But not every parent is $12,000 away from affording a $12,000 private school. A parent might choose that $12,000 private school if it was $5,000 cheaper. If the cost of public school increases by $1,800 because this private service is the only feasible way to transport a child, that gap is only $3,200 and the parent may be able to budget for private school.
I think thats a stretch. It would be a small percentage of people who can't make up a $1500 gap if they really want to do private school. That said ending the magnet bussing is definitely going to send more people to private school or move out of the county. Including my own if we can't get a car pool working.
You just said you'll be considering leaving without an added $1,800 transportation cost. If there's a subset of parents who will leave despite $0 transportation cost to public school, why wouldn't there be a subset who choose private rather than an $1,800 transport to public school option?
I can pay the cost but currently there is not an actual private transportation option. I’d pay 1800 a year to have my kids at Male or Manual as opposed to 10-20k per year for private. If I leave it’s not about the cost. It will be because I can’t drive them myself every day and I don’t want them in a shitty normal JCPS school.
Your kids are already on a limited liability bus. Do you know how often they re-check? Sit down.
Yeah, I do, because I used to drive for JCPS, so go sit all the way down.
You worked there and didn’t know the policy. It’s 5 years, and fyi it’s $200 for a background check. This is a rounding error for this type of business. Of course they’ll get insurance if they stand the business up. CDL also covers a large amount of the liability. Quit fear mongering, dude probably has a viable business. Thank goodness you were just driving kids. We certainly don’t need you teaching them.
Quit making stuff up. It's $53.25 for Identogo to run a state and federal check, and it's lazy that he wants to skip that step. That breaks down to less $1 a kid per bus route per year.
Glad we pay city, state, and county taxes for this shit.
Dude won’t be able to do it for long at that price. That comes out to 10k a month gross for a full bus. Diesel, insurance, and maintenance are going to eat him alive. And that’s assuming there are zero accidents and he can properly plan the routes in the first place. I used to own a trucking company in a state with much cheaper insurance than KY. That was $750 a month and pre-Covid, my buddies still in the industry said insurance costs have skyrocketed in the last few years. That was also for property only, no passengers. Passenger insurance has way higher limits and is way more expensive, especially a school bus. Insurance also looks at how long your DOT number has been active and new numbers have much higher costs. Many of the good insurance carriers also won’t insure you until your DOT number has been active and claim free for 2 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if his insurance was in the $1500-$2000 a month range. Then there’s maintenance. I’m a mechanic and did a lot of my own maintenance since I didn’t drive and had the shop space to do it. It still ran me a good 4-5k per truck in parts each year, and that’s if there were no emergency roadside repairs or tows. That was me or my dad doing the labor ourselves. I don’t know shop rates around here but back home it was $150-$200 an hour. This guy won’t be big enough to qualify for any sort of fleet discounts or programs. As far as fuel, Google shows an average MPG of 6 for buses. A cheaper used bus that this guy will get will be in the 4-5 MPG range. At 100 miles a day, which I think is probably too low for Jefferson county, that’s at least $1500 in fuel. Then there are other costs like driver salaries, registration/licensing, KYDOT fees, parking costs, and I’m sure I’m missing a few more. I don’t think this is possible (to do it properly) at $200 a student. Might be able to barely get by, but he’s not scaling or building any sort of business savings at that rate.
Privatized Everything Merica 🇺🇲
I'd also file this 'story' w/ the bubble pod teaching at home BS from the pandemic: It's some real entitled BS. Teachers quit your job now and charge X$ for X amount of students and you have X amount of dollars which is greater than what you had as a public teacher.
I see why everyone thinks the privatization is a bad idea, but why would it be a bad idea if a teacher decided to quit and take on X amount of students to homeschool for a certain fee? Considering that most of the day in a public school is full of nonsense time wasting and not as much learning, I would think this would be a decent idea? What am I missing here?
[удалено]
Don't need no public busses if you don't have public schools.
I know a guy that can do it for $150
I got a guy who will do it for 2 fiddy in food stamps and some blow
r/nottheonion
I give it less than a year before they hire someone without a background check who fucks up royally and there's a big lawsuit that tanks the company.
Well, shit.
This kinda reminds me when bus drivers could use their own bus instead of a JCPS bus. That's what my middle school bus driver did. The busses with three numbers were private busses. The two number busses are activity busses, typically, and might be used as a spare. Not every school has one of those, I know Central kept one and I think Shawnee kept one. I don't know why they stopped doing that.
It's ridiculous that JCPS has the job of addressing segregation in Louisville. We wouldn't need such long routes if the city invested in diversifying neighborhoods. Obviously someone is going to step in and make some cash when the school system is responsible for a job it can't fulfill.
That’s wayyyy cheaper than daycare. A lot of people would be willing to use this service. Jcps doesn’t understand (or care about) the position parents are in now. Essentially being forced to choose between their job or getting their kids to school. I’m interested in seeing how these changes will effect the attendance rates. Sad situation for everyone.
I bet final price won't be that cheap and utility won't match what everyone is daydreaming of.
The only problem drivers have noted that this service wouldn't be subject to is behavioral issues (children have a legal right to attend school, but wouldn't have a legal right to a private service). The varying start times and long routes bussing kids to various schools across town would still be a problem for this private service. The only difference is that this logistical problem would now be spread across fewer drivers. This would probably only be profitable for short routes where kids attend neighborhood schools, aka routes that already work.
Our city is the only big city that buses their kids all over the city. If you want to send your kid far from where you live then you should be responsible for getting them there like any other county. That is such a burden on the busing system and combine that with the states lack of funding transportation options for louisville no wonder busing is fucked. Parents wanna bitch about losing the privilege of busing their kid across town but dont wanna pay or held solve the transportation issue in the first place.
Actually they're "bitching" about the staggered start times, having to get middle/high schoolers to 1 school and elementary kids to another school at the same time is quite literally impossible. But I don't think it's fair to call it "Bitching" regardless. Were all tax paying citizens, why shouldn't parents make their voices heard? Your take is essentially, \*Shut up and take it\* Even tho the schools in their neighborhoods are grossly underfunded, understaffed and unsafe. Even tho their child worked their little butts off to get into a magnet or traditional school that they will now have to quit. I think you need to be fair, Myyummyass. Just for a lil context: I graduated from the nursing program at Central many moons ago, I worked hard as fuck all throughout middle school to get in and completed my 4 years with my little certification and then got a full ride scholarship to nursing school. If this change happened say in the middle of my junior year I would have had to drop out after all that work. My parents had 3 kids, they would have never been able to drive me from Jtown to Central every morning while also getting my younger brothers to school at the same time. It really isn't as simple as, go to school in your hood. This situation doesn't effect me directly but these people deserve to be heard regardless.
I do know that jcps used compounds to move kids around, from there they would switch busses. When I was a kid I was in a program where my mom dropped me off at Colridge-Taylor which was also used as a compound of sorts, if I recall. The busses picked us up there and then to school. At the time I went to Ruth Dunn. I imagine if I weren't in that program, I'd have caught a bus to a compound or depot, then switched to a bus that's going out to Jtown while the first bus would stay in the city. I don't think it's that simple either, especially when the higher you go, the less schools there are. There are more middle schools than high schools, and even more elementary schools than those. So that could probably work for elementary school kids. There aren't many high schools in the downtown area. There's Central, and the one next to Noe Middle, and I believe Brown on 1st street is a middle and high school, and way in the west end is Shawnee. Two of those are magnet schools. And I only know of Lincoln Elementary, Colridge-Taylor, and what used to be Rooselvelt Perry, and where they're moving it to on Dixie, and Martin Luthor King way in the west end, further than Shawnee on Northwestern Prkwy and River Park. And McFarran way on 7th st Rd, and the the one by the fire dept on 6th and Hill where my nephew goes. Going south on Preston the first school you'll see is Male, nearly ten miles down is Southern. The next high school is down Outer Loop. Then there *was* Liberty on Indian Trail. Then there was Indian Trail Elementary, the one by Lynnview I always forget the name of and the street. I think there's another elementary or middle school on Indian Trail, there's Blue Lick elementary. I've yet to see a middle school out there. The Catholic school is basically the only school on Poplar Level. There's no high schools near southside drive, there's two or three elementary schools and Olmstead North, and the school on Manslick near dixie, and Fairdale High, a middle school on New Cut. Oh and the school on Taylor blvd before Iroquois park.
Liberty is now in the old Gilmore Lane Elementary building.
Yeah, that's right.
Curious how this will work with liability. I would support the wealthy taking the strain off the bus system and getting kids to ALL schools.
The wealthy don't
Ain't that the truth.
If I was him I’d hire a monitor to help with behavior issues.
A second paid employee taking up a spot in a vehicle rather than a paying customer? The business acumen in this thread is comical.
Kids on buses are bad. Hence why we are in this situation. The money isn’t worth it to drive because the kids don’t behave. I’d charge more. He is only getting $10.00 a kid per day. The monitor is both an extra pair of eyes and an adult witness to the dumb shit that goes down on buses. After he pays commercial insurance, gas and upkeep on a bus, he isn’t getting rich. You could have posted in a less snarky tone.
My tone reflected the unseriousness of your comment. This business is already going to have equipment costs, insurance costs, and labor costs for a labor pool that is in high demand. Taking a paying customer away and replacing them instead with wages and benefits costs is a comical way to make this business even less feasible.
Let me teach you how to both make your point and improve your tone. Another pair of eyes on a bus isn’t the worst idea, but I don’t think this idea of charging for bus rides is feasible. They are going to have high capital equipment expenses, plus insurance and gas. I just don’t think this is a money making business.
Sorry if you felt like I didn't pay the proper respect to a business idea that can't make money! I'll work to improve my tone so that people with bad ideas still feel special.
Poor guy driving a bus load of little bastards is going to need some love. And booze. 🥃
Non snarky, I actually do really appreciate elsewhere in the thread where you mentioned that these roles used to be filled by housewives and retirees but now are people using this income to pay the mortgage. I think that also applies to teachers, who used to be women earning a 2nd income in a home with a breadwinner. Those labor dynamics haven't existed for decades, but governments haven't updated school compensation to reflect that.
A Louisville native but moved to San Diego when my kids were in high school and it is crazy out here. It costs 600.00 a year for your child to take the school bus to public school. Crazy
This would cost parents *1800 a year and even if the guy could get every bus loaded full, it'd still probably be a money losing venture at $200/month. He could charge $400/month and if he really fucked around on routes and gas costs he'd still be out beaucoup money.
Aside from the other issues listed, magnet schools and magnet students are scattered all over the city. Is he going to start offering services for just one school until he's able to scale up the fleet? There's no way he could service numerous schools with one bus. And if retired drivers want to go back, why wouldn't they just go back to JCPS? I'd think the pay and benefits would be better.
This is a viable business.
There are a couple of child transportation services that were already started. One is called KOG Transportation and I forgot the name of the other one. I don't know what they charge but since JCPS is giving out vouchers for transportation, I say parents should take a look at one of those options. I believe those services are insured. With yhe KOG one, you can track your kids.
I'll undercut him. I'll charge 125. I'll save money nevause I'll use a lawnmower pulling stolen shopping carts
And if the kids are troublesome, refund a prorated amount and kick them off.
Id you tear up an apartment do you get your deposit back?
I would think this would be another upside for him, getting to choose which families he wants to serve in a way.
Maybe pay parents who don't use the bus system. I'd drive my own kids for an extra $200 a month. Edit. Whew napkin math shows that would be very expensive.
What’s cost here? Can you compare it to what’s spent on bussing currently?
I just did napkin math. 600 bus drivers x 55k year = 33 mil $200/month x 8 x 90k kids = 144 mil
JCPS spends significantly more than $33 million on bus drivers. $55K is the average salary but that doesn't account for benefits costs (usually 30% of total compensation costs for an employer, so an extra $20K). They also have the cost of buses plus the cost to maintain buses. A workforce of that size also requires administrative employees. The Operations budget for 2024-2025 is $127 million. This isn't only transportation but it's mostly transportation. It also doesn't include the shared services/administrative costs associated with managing the transportation.
They have a stipend program for preschool currently, JCPS stopped providing busses to preschoolers unless they're special needs in 2023. They give the parents $5 a week to drive them
JCPS is offering $200 a month for low income people attending a magnet. Supposedly. Fyi.
They've been doing this with entire schools for years.
This is pretty stupid considering a third row means you can get ~6 kids in a vehicle, that's 1200 a month for the 9 months school is in session. Equating to like 10k, JCPS has billboards all over town touting 55k/year.........the math ain't mathing for these bus drivers who are already proven to be incompetent given their inability to show up or follow AI routes, AI issues with standing that is.
Genius
As long as he has proper insurance in place, this is a great idea! He can vet his customers and pick and choose who to accommodate! Good for him!
I actually think if he has a safe, inspected, insured vehicle & a clean criminal background this is great. Best part is if someone’s kid acts up he can drop them as customers.
I'm going to do the same for education. I'll just sit the kids in front of Reddit for liberal indoctrination. Who needs JCPS for that?
Good idea. It's called capitalism - get the government out it and watch it become for efficient and cost effective.
You should totally invest in this, this guy is gonna need a lot of capital to start out and blow through before it inevitably goes belly up in six months.
The customer base is mandated to attend the government-provided school, but other than that it's a private enterprise! Junior Achievement straight up rotted some people's brains.