During the first days of classes in Anchorage that began today, over 10,000 students are not going to be able to ride the bus to school because there are not enough school bus drivers. The bus schedule is extremely curtailed and, at this point, unpredictable.
The Anchorage School Board, dominated by social justice warriors, had not focused on the transportation needs of students this summer. Instead, the board was caught unaware, according to Board President Margo Bellamy.
Instead, the board has been working on passing resolutions such as a new “land acknowledgment” policy, that will require students to be indoctrinated once a week with the recitation that they are colonizers who have no real right to live on the land they occupy.
The mandatory weekly land acknowledgement resolution is working its way through the Governance Committee process of the Anchorage School Board. The proposal has been discussed since at least March.
Sponsored by School Board President Margo Bellamy and member Carl Jacobs, it was supposed to be approved early this month, before the start of the school year. It has been delayed, because its wording is under dispute by Board member Dave Donley, who has challenged it and pointed out that students are not even being taught the Pledge of Allegiance. But it will be brought up again in the Governance Committee on Aug. 24, along with the topics of “Safe and Secure Storage of Firearms Education, and “Student Adult Boundaries.”
In addition to the land acknowledgement emphasis, the board has been working on defying voters’ intent when they voted down the bond proposal to replace Inlet View Elementary School. The board is moving the planning of that replacement ahead by bringing it before the Urban Planning Commission.
The board is not, however, focused on the district’s upcoming $60-100 million budget deficit that is expected for the next fiscal year.
Meanwhile, many parents are trying to deal with the problem of how to get their students to school safely. Some are organizing car pools, while others are keeping students at home and home schooling them. The problem of a lack of drivers will probably extend for several weeks, as the district lacks as many as 70 drivers.
School began today in the Anchorage public schools.
