Getting ready for school can feel like a hectic rush. Sometimes you want to stay in bed just a little longer. Would $75 make you more excited to get up?
The St. Louis school district in Missouri faces a bus driver shortage. Officials cooked up a creative solution. The school district will pay parents to drive their kids to school.
The plan has already started for families who have experienced “chronic bus absenteeism,” which is an overcomplicated way of saying that the bus didn’t show up. Beginning April 29, these families could receive gas cards to cover fuel costs. And starting May 13, the district will offer $75 fuel reimbursement to any family willing to drive for each of the last two weeks of school.
There’s one catch: Don’t be tardy or absent! If you show up late more than once per week, you don’t get the money.
What sparked the bus driver shortage? In March, the Missouri Central School Bus Company announced the end of its contract with the St. Louis school district. But many of the company’s drivers had already walked away.
The reason behind these walkouts ties back to a difficult, tragic history.
In February, Missouri Central mechanic Amin Mitchell was working on one of the district’s buses. That’s when he found a noose at his workstation. As a black man, Mitchell took this as a threat—a threat tied to a history of racism.
After the end of slavery in the United States, many laws still unfairly targeted black Americans. Historians call these “Jim Crow laws.” And in the years after Emancipation, thousands of black people were murdered by lynching—killed without a trial for perceived crimes. Often, this was done by hanging. The noose became a symbol of the evil practice.
After Mitchell found the noose, about 100 bus drivers left work for a few days in protest. They said they wanted to support Mitchell and highlight other concerns they had with the bus company. Across the school district, parents scrambled to find school transportation.
Local officials called for a hate crime investigation. The bus company hired a third-party investigator. Investigators have not yet released a report.
The bus company also disagreed with the school district over money. Company officials asked the district for an extra $2 million to help meet the pressure of inflation. The district refused.
Gas cards for families might help kids get to school. But not every problem can be solved with $75. Some problems have deep roots in history, and those require more than cash. Those need God’s healing hand.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. — Psalm 147:3
