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I mean, you also have to then consider the counter-question: does Baltimore City need school busses? A lot of cities go without them and rely on their public transit network.

I think its telling that so many mainstream outlets in baltimore proceed from the assumption that their audience has zero real world knowledge.

Did you listen to the podcast or are you just responding to the question?

That's not a matter of those outlets being in Baltimore.

I can only speak from direct experience but it wouldnt surprise me.

County high schools don't provide service under a mile. What's the longest distance in the city? Is it over a mile?

Exactly in Philly only the youngest elementary school students and special needs kids use school buses and it’s my understanding that New York is the same. Some school buses are prudent but a whole fleet seems like a waste of funds

There's a lot of reasons, but part of it is because school choice results in a chaotic commute for kids and schools who have students all over the city.

And another perfect example of why public transit in this city is so crucial and the failure of such a service is a failure for society as a whole.

Yeah riding the bus to work in DC I see kids on it all the time going to school. Plenty of cities are doing without.

City schools always use public transportation

Because nobody In the council or the mayor's office has figured out how to introduce it by making themselves rich yet.

Yeah if you live within a certain radius you don't get the bus ticket packs. There's quite a few high schools (if not all of them) where kids are coming from all over the city.

most of the buses passes by high schools and middle schools so they use public buses but for field trips and stuff they rent buses

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School choice does not result in good things for the most part. At my elementary school, our kids who come from out of zone are absent much more frequently than those who are in zone. It doesn't make sense to accept so many out of zone kids when this is the trend.

School choice complicated this

The dumb school choice system means kids are being taken 3-5 miles across the city to the good schools.

It’s hilariously, tragically sad that buses, daily transportation and supportive staff aren’t on City school’s budget, casino money is supposed to be available, school bond issue money is in the millions, yet students still don’t have a lot of the basics, and terrible facilities in some schools. 🫣

We don’t get to go on any field trips. It costs about $2000 to rent a bus to go anywhere that isn’t within walking distance. Meaning we can’t take our kids to places like the science center, port discovery, the zoo, a planetarium, a theater, any fun locations to celebrate our successful scholars, that live science shit near fells, any trails or hikes that are 20mins out driving.

Not having a bus is an issue. It sucks that we cannot take them anywhere unless we fundraise money for it.

They get bus tickets from the school to ride on public transportation

The city uses taxis/Ubers for special ed students. I'm not sure about elementary.

Whenever the question is “Why doesn’t Baltimore have _____,” the answer is racism.

City Schools is also 1 mile.

Is there a way to use public transportation for this?

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i thought it was normal for most cities to use public transit for city schools? DC, Philly, NYC, etc all do the same thing. Granted we should definitely improve the transit system here as ours is very subpar but overall all i see nothing wrong with this

Obviously yes but I really don’t see how can can fit approx 30-50 kids. We have large classes and it’s easier when our field trips involve more than one class with the goal of going to point xyz, especially for shows, productions etc.

We don’t have access to transportation as readily as we should and it sucks.

I love the Maryland Curiosity Bureau podcast.

Funny thing... I saw this post yesterday and then saw two yellow Baltimore City School Buses a few hours later when I was walking up 28th street.

The city should focus on expanding and working with the current bus system. The streets are already congested, more buses won't help. On top of that most other cities do fine without Buses.

Maybe they should expand the charm city circulator?

Yes, but Baltimore's public transit system is terribly insufficient. So it's not like we have some great, efficient bus system that can take public school kids to and from school, but also for field trips and after school activities like sports and the arts. Sure, if Baltimore had a functioning public transit system then maybe, but Baltimore's bus system is a mess, it's not sufficient for getting thousands of kids to and from school each day.

Elementary students have city school bus service, up to 6th grade. The title is misleading, only students 7th grade and older take MTA buses.

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