Schools are cutting bus service for children. Parents are turning to ride-hailing apps

[Jilly_in_VA]

Ismael El-Amin was driving his daughter to school when a chance encounter gave him an idea for a new way to carpool.

On the way across Chicago, El-Amin’s daughter spotted a classmate riding with her own dad as they drove to their selective public school on the city’s North Side. For 40 minutes, they rode along the same congested highway.

“They’re waving to each other in the back. I’m looking at the dad. The dad’s looking at me. And I was like, parents can definitely be a resource to parents,” said El-Amin, who went on to found Piggyback Network, a service parents can use to book rides for their children.

Reliance on school buses has been waning for years as districts struggle to find drivers and more students attend schools far outside their neighborhoods. As responsibility for transportation shifts to families, the question of how to replace the traditional yellow bus has become an urgent problem for some, and a spark for innovation.

State and local governments decide how widely to offer school bus service. Lately, more have been cutting back. Only about 28% of U.S. students take a school bus, according to a Federal Highway Administration survey concluded early last year. That’s down from about 36% in 2017.

https://apnews.com/article/school-bus-rideshare-chicago-3fdcedfc4f957f748bf109066806bc88

Or, for some, could this mean the return of the smaller, neighborhood oriented school?

[BigmanPigman]

1. A fellow teacher and friend made a ton $$$$

with idea in 2003. He decided teaching was too shitty to continue as a profession (I agree) and had an idea for a new business where he rented a school bus and used it to pick up kids at their homes as a school bus limo driver of sorts. He was a success and has made a mint since then.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

2. Why not use all those drones to "drop" them off to school?

Plenty of those around!