School districts that can't teach kids to read or do math are busy banning e-bikes and locking in million-dollar contracts with bus companies that don't show up — and parents are supposed to just pay the bill.
St. Louis-area school districts have moved to prohibit students from riding e-bikes to campus, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Meanwhile, 1,200 miles east in Springfield, Massachusetts, school officials just approved a $45 million contract with First Student, the only bus company that even bothered to bid — a company that was penalized more than $1 million last year for failing to meet basic performance standards.
The contrast tells you everything about where the education establishment's priorities actually sit. Regulating a kid's bicycle? Easy. Demanding accountability from a monopoly contractor that leaves children sitting on curbs? Somehow that's just the way it is.
In Springfield, the School Committee signed off on more than $68 million in contracts and expenses, with the largest chunk going to First Student for regular busing, special education transportation, and services for homeless students. City Councilor Rosa Valentin raised the obvious question: "Is there any way that we cannot do this contract or is there any way that have performance or accountability for services they are providing?"
Good question. Principals have complained that First Student staff have been "disrespectful and rude when questioned about different concerns," MassLive reported. The company's main failure was doubling up routes when drivers called in sick and no substitutes were available — meaning kids arrived late to school. Last year alone, the district assessed over $1 million in penalties against First Student for missing performance targets.
And yet the contract sails through. Why? Because First Student has been the only bidder since at least 2009. The city has used the company for 25 years. School Committee lawyer Ian Keefe admitted the city could face a lawsuit if it didn't accept the sole bid. Chief financial officer Patrick Roach said it would be "impossible to find a company with 300 buses and drivers needed on short notice."
Mayor Domenic Sarno, who chairs the School Committee, offered the classic establishment shrug: "I'd love to see competition. It knocks down the price, which is paid by on the city side, but we have to get the kids to school."
Note what's missing from that statement: any plan to actually create competition. The state doesn't even include busing costs in its calculation of the minimum amount schools must spend on education — so the money flows with even less oversight than the classroom dollars.
Back in St. Louis, the districts banning e-bikes are exercising the kind of authority they're comfortable with: top-down control over families' daily choices. It's the same instinct that drives curriculum mandates, speech codes, and dress policies — the education establishment reaches for the lever it can actually pull, which is always the one marked "compliance."
The lever marked "accountability" — for bus monopolies, for reading scores, for math proficiency — stays rusted shut.
Parents in Springfield and St. Louis are left with the same question: if you can regulate my kid's bicycle, why can't you teach my kid to read?
