Philadelphia education chiefs are paying parents $300 a month to drive their children to school amid a crippling bus driver shortage.
More than 8,500 families have already signed up to the scheme, which is estimated to cost around the school district $31.2 million this academic year alone.
The school district caters for around 22,000 students and said opting out of bus journeys is a way to ease the massive strain on the network.
Currently just half of the 200 bus driver positions normally offered are filled, according to the Wall Street Journal.
This has resulted in a squeeze on the system that has left some parents scrambling to get their children to class.
The School District of Philadelphia has only filled about 100 of the 200 bus driver positions it needs to run its school shuttle service
Among them is Berkley Collins, whos first grader daughter was forced to miss several days of class due to the transport issues.
She had to wait two weeks to be assigned a bus route to take her daughter the 20 to 30 minute journey to school.
The mortgage loan officer told the outlet the situation left her in ‘a panic’. She said the situation left her questioning if she was going to ‘choose my career over keeping my kids in the school we can have them go to for free with higher-quality education?’
Monique Braxton, a spokeswoman for the school district, said: ‘If your child’s school is on the way to your work, this is a win-win.’
Philadelphia is not alone in its transport issues with several cities across the US experiencing similar problems.
In Chicago, families have been given free-transit cards to get their kids to school while it struggles to fill the almost 700 positions the city needs to effectively transport its 300,000 students.
Meanwhile Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky had a chaotic start to the first week of the semester with kids arriving home as late as 10pm due to staffing issues.
Content source – www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com
