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.
I think we all know the school board is not about students, and hasn’t been since about 1970. I expect we could do just fine without them.
The School Board has always had their heads stuffed up their wazoo…
Well in all fairness the new superintendent isn’t technically qualified to do the job and I seriously doubt Margo has had to worry about a bus in the past quarter century so….. plus if we would all get on board with monkey pox we could close all the schools again and then this becomes a non-issue.
Well, I beg to differ with what appears to be an exaggeration. I don’t think any evidence exists that these people lived here for “thousands” of years–maybe hundreds? And so what? Historically people have migrated back and forth over and over all around the globe. Studying history and migratory patterns is a fascinating subject and one of my favorites.
You are correct. Every indication is that the Indians pushed down from the interior and forced an Eskimo group out of Cook Inlet. Probably enslaved many too. The same story throughout the history of the world.
Possession is 9/10ths of the law.
This, in my opinion, is a self inflicted wound caused by the indifference and/or laziness of many fellow Anchorage citizens. We had an opportunity to vote out some of the people on our school board who are making asinine decisions and attempting to circumvent the will of the people, with candidates who really cared about our children. Now here we are, dealing with the aftermath of the poor choices that many made, who could not be troubled to go and vote, or simply voted without first informing themselves. Lots of wokeism going on, but what good does that do in the real world? The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing.
If we had not run multiple candidates the last few times around the board would be different. Egos on our side.
Whose job is it to hire school bus drivers? I just heard our new, under educated superintendent suggested they give the kids a free bus pass and they can ride the city bus. Now that’s a great idea! Not!
And un-qualified…….. qualifications only matter with public libraries I guess.
So detrimental
What about people who were here before the Denaina?
About 30 years ago or so here in Anchorage, the schools’ tactic to get more money was to threaten to close the swimming pools. Remember SAVE OUR POOLS bumper stickers? Firing a bunch of bus drivers (which they did) and then claiming they don’t have enough bus drivers or money, is just a new “Save Our Pools” scam. Never let a good crisis (manufactured crisis) go to waste. This is what government does, break things and then demand more money.
Don’t let that budget short fall bother you. The ASD brainiacs are spending money on 50 dollar gas cards for all of us. So they are short on funds and buying gas cards….?
Purely democrat logic on display. “We’ll spend our way out of this bad budget!”
How ‘bout just cutting back on our property taxes? You know since the schools were empty for a year and a half and now we aren’t using all the buses.
For some reason this just doesn’t seem surprising. If I were a parent of school age children in Anchorage I would seriously be considering either home education or a private school.
I discovered private schools aren’t any better than public. Their teachers and staff are still influenced by democrat ideology including the christian schools. Its homeschooling that would protect a child’s
childhood and the child’s relationship w/parent more than attending a private school.
There is a point why God permitting this social justice happening, why social justice warriors are elected instead of more God-fearing leaders. Just as there was a point why God permitted 60 american babies to die! By roe. God is working on my heart, iget mad less if i can push myself beyond my own understanding. I advice, refrain from annoyance, just getworking on the bus problem
Am I to understand that there are NO bus drivers?
Or did somebody decide that if they were short a driver…. no busses would run at all?
Every time someone starts with that land acknowledgement bs, I want to scream. If somebody alive today believes they have priority over land in the Anchorage bowl, they are as delusional as the assembly and school board.
BUT at least their priorities are in order right ? sooo…. let me get this straight, they are giving free bus passes to students and free bus passes to the homeless at the same time, what could possibly go wrong with these OPEN BORDER clowns in charge ?
Am I the only one to have been caught behind a school bus to watch it stop every 400 feet to pick up an additional 4-5 students.
Heaven forbid these same kid that are claimed to be over weight have to walk a 1/2 mile at least.
Priority’s are existing but NOT to prepare a child to be a productive citizen
You are not. What I find most annoying is the bus that stops at every driveway to drop of a kid in the afternoon. Seriously. If the kid lives at 101 main street, the bus stops there, then at 103, then at 105, then they skip a house or two, and stop at 111.
When I was a kid in school, I had to walk to the bus stop to catch the bus. Just like every other kid in the neighborhood. It was a massive whopping 1/2 block away.
Oh, there are bus drivers. I live on a bus route but I can see there a not many kids on the buses. In the year and a half when kids met on Zoom the existing bus drivers needed to work and found jobs in the community. Hence, now those folks may make more $$ or they may be hesitant to take a job that’s…shall we say iffy. When are the powers to be going to decide that bus drivers aren’t needed again. A crap shoot any way one looks at.
Where is my refund??? NO in person school for over a year and now no buses, but somehow we taxpayers still get to pay! So I say again: WHERE is my REFUND???
I agree with you 100 percent! The crazy thing is how these school bonds pass when most people voted no on them! Return our money!
FNSB School Board has done this also. You are kidding me, and who owned the land prior to that? Stupid, stupid, stupid!!! Grow up and do your job and quit wasting taxpayer’s money and time.
According to WalletHub, Alaska is 50th in the nation for education, New Mexico at 51 was last. So it doesn’t matter whether the kids get on the bus or not.
I
There is a nationwide shortage of school teachers and school bus drivers. Very convenient to blame this on local school boards by a reactionary minority.
You misused “ convenient” I think you meant “appropriate”. Also we are not the minority Frank. We unlike YOU are still working and still have kids in the ASD system. So yeah, having a bus at the stop is a big deal and we are “reacting” angrily because this should be a built-in part of school business and budgets. The bus and driver should be paid for and scheduled before the radio ads and equity/inclusivity/indigenous/lgbtq propaganda crap.
Also, this is a school board problem, so yes we are blaming the people who made poor decisions. I know that’s a foreign concept to you liberals these days, but that’s how those of us in the real world do it.
Reactionary minority??? Frank all these parents in the Muni, who found out last minute that they could not rely on a school bus to get their kids to school and have to make other arrangements are NOT a reactionary minority. They are taxpayers expecting a service that was promised and they planned their life around, so their kids get an education and they can make a living. Now they get jerked around in an on-again off-again maybe schedule that is impossible to plan for. Once it became apparent over the summer that ASD did not have enough drivers, the school board should have come clean and planned, but clearly political flowery statements are more important than fulfilling your obligations to your customers. They could have announced early that bus service would be suspended for ALL for the first semester, parents could have planned better. This would have given them time to fill the ranks or do away with it all together. There are school districts in CA that no longer offer bus service.
The most powerful monopoly in the world will not relinquish an inch of the control they have. Change will require some more momentum toward private schools and incentivized teachers. The administrations and NEA don’t realize they have triggered these changes. It will take some brave politicians and or possibly a constitutional convention to get some traction with our populous
Who in their right mind would want to be a school bus driver? Unruly and often violent kids, unruly and often violent parents, and an unqualified Superintendent. Sounds like a hostile work environment to me.
How many natives are driving the buses? They say it’s their land let them pick up and pay the tab on this.
The truth I can deal with.
The lies, they just annoy me.
School Bus Driver’s should get the same pay as The Police, they are doing the same job.
These people who “owned” this land by conquest before the USA were slave owners. Why isn’t that part of “telling the truth” about the past? They also didn’t let people pick their own pronouns.
Because it’s only wrong if you do something bad and your white. Otherwise the subject never comes up.
Why won’t anybody grow the balls and say it?? “ it’s not your land anymore!!” It was your land, it’s not anymore. Not yours. Not yours. Hasn’t been since Russia took it from you two hundred years ago. Not yours. Never will be again.
Stop sending your kids to this government internment camp to be brainwashed. Home school or start a Neighborhood self learning system and they will be just fine. Get away from all this drama and indoctrination the school district is delivering to your kids.
What a mess. Matsu is having bus shortages too. I blame the “pandemic” restrictions and stupidity that went on.
what can we do to get these people out of office and get a different superintendent ?
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