Not So Cheesy perhaps.

Possibly inspired by Jean Anyon’s Radical Possibilities, a book whose dense prose makes a reader want to reference it at all points, because reading it was so hard it has to be worth something, I’ve been considering outside-the-classroom solutions to the problems I see playing out within my school. Although not quite as out of the box as an Anyon proposal, I think revising school transportation could make for positive, immediate improvement in Baltimore.
“Cheese buses” so often mocked by my students, used to riding the public MTA, bus tickets in hand, make sense for many schools. And the public buses do not. Students arrive off buses in tumbling, rowdy masses. There is little consistency in timing—students take whichever bus they want. Drivers do not always stop of students; students fight on buses. Students often have to walk far to good routes, if they miss the first round of buses—the only ones that stop at my school. This limits chances for extracurricular activities or even after-school detention and after-school tutoring. The current bus system limits schools’ abilities to reach students and families, engage them, set up interventions outside of suspension, and offer much needed help.
Yellow buses, with specific routes at a certain time, are responsible only for students. School rules can then follow students onto the bus. There can be accountability for drivers and school officials—because students can be assigned to buses; they are recognized and known by their driver and by the school. “Late buses” could run longer routes to drop off students staying for extracurriculars. Student safety is better assured, since their families and teachers know where they are going and how they are getting to school. There is less of a chance of taking a bus ticket down to the inner harbor. There is less of a chance of drivers refusing to pick up students. Rules can be firmly applied. And the city-buses do not have to cope with the student influx during rush hours in the morning and even afternoon.
There is doubtless a cost-issue. But I find these arguments somewhat tiresome at this point. More than the price of students’ education and safety? Establishing school only buses—starting with elementary and middle schools, moving up to high schools if the program shows merit—and restart schools days.