Pittsburgh Public Schools no longer provides school bus service to many families who had it prior to the pandemic. Students grades K-8 are only eligible for school bus service if they live more than 1.5 miles from the school, and high school students need to live more than 2 miles from the school.
The school district’s failure to provide transportation to more families causes tremendous hardship for many and is an equity issue.
About 24% of Pittsburgh households do not have a car. Many of the rest only own a single car that may be needed for commute purposes and not available to assist with student pick up and drop off. For families with limited car access, transporting young children 1.5 miles can be a major burden when younger siblings need to be brought along. A 1.5 mile distance one way amounts to 6 miles round trip when both pickup and dropoff are included. Pushing a single or double stroller this distance or making a younger sibling walk that far can be a huge challenge, particularly if the parent is pregnant or has a disability.
Transportation challenges are a major contributor to chronic absenteeism. One study found that 17.2% of economically disadvantaged students were chronically absent if they were not eligible for bus service, compared with only 13.4% of bus eligible students.
Parents needing to drop their kids off by car should be seen as a policy failure. A school bus can transport 48 to 72 children. Therefore having a bus driver work for an hour collectively saves parents many hours of time.
School bus service also greatly benefits the broader public. 20-30% of rush hour traffic is generated by parents driving their children to school. In addition to reducing congestion, school buses are safer and better for the environment than private cars.
The American academy of pediatrics recommends that children should not walk to school unaccompanied until they are ten years old. Until that age, Pittsburgh should offer school bus service to families that live more than half a mile from the school they attend. If there is insufficient funding for this, Pittsburgh should offer transportation to families that meet one of the following criteria:
- Their household doesn’t have a car.
- They have other children too young to attend elementary school.
- A parent is pregnant or has a disability.
The Pennsylvania state government could also help by providing funding, and by expanding its program to train more bus drivers.
Improving school bus service would be a good investment that would make Pittsburgh better.
