Thread by @kazweida

This #SaturdayMorning I want to tell you what happened when I attempted to pick my son up from school yesterday.

It begins in the car on the way to the bus stop when I look down at my phone and realize somehow, I have missed 6 calls.

My anxiety immediately skyrockets.
(THREAD)

(2) They are all coming from the same number, one I recognize. My son, who is in 8th grade, doesn't have a phone. But his friend does.

I call back right away but there is no answer. Fortunately, he's left one message.
Unfortunately, I can't understand a word of it.

(3) It's noisy and garbled but I take comfort that he doesn't sound frightened. And I catch the word bus. I immediately calm. He must have missed the bus.

At this point, I arrive at the bus stop, located at a local elementary school, and see cars lining both sides of the street.

(4) And I realize EVERYONE missed the bus because the bus is not here. I see parents milling about confused. I try calling and texting the number my son called from again but there's no response.

At this point, the bus is about 15-20 minutes late.

(5) I begin to wonder if the bus is broken down, but usually, they call & leave one of those automated messages. I haven't gotten one of those. I start thinking maybe I should drive across town to the school.

In case the bus left already, I call the middle school for an update.

(6) Nobody answers. It's 3:30 on a school day so I'm puzzled. I call several times. Nothing. At this point, the bus is about 30 minutes late & I decide to just head over to the middle school. On the way, I call a mom friend and she confirms the bus is late but has no other info.

(7) On the way across town, which takes 15 minutes, I continue dialing the middle school office and the cell phone my son called from. No answer. Now I'm starting to worry because it's nearly 4 pm & I don't know where my kid is.

I pull up outside the school. It's empty & locked

(8) It occurs to me that if he did get on the bus & leave while I was driving across town, the elementary school where the bus stop is will know when the bus arrives. So I call over to that office. No answer but an automated message tells me the office closes at 3:30.

(9) This is SUPER puzzling because the elementary school doesn't even get out until after 3:30. Fortunately, I know a teacher who works at the school so I call her. She peeks out the window & confirms that the bus from the middle school has arrived and she sees my son. THANK GOD.

(10) I explain to her what happened and I can hear her frustration across the line. She agrees that it's ridiculous that both school offices are closed before school even ends. But she says budget cuts have forced them to cut office staff completely.

(11) At this point, it's a little after 4 pm when I pull up and pick up my son. This odyssey of frustration and worry has taken me an hour, struggling through cross-town traffic, burning several dollars worth of gas. He explains his friend's cell phone battery died.

(12) He also says that for the 3rd time this week he had a substitute bus driver. The school is struggling to find qualified people to drive the buses and I've seen the emails go out pleading for volunteer crossing guards.

So now I'll explain why I'm even telling you this story

(13) I never received any message from the middle school about the delay.

Our schools are struggling. Utah no longer requires certification for teachers because they simply can't fill vacancies. Aging buildings and skeleton staff.

This has been happening for decades.

(14) We pay taxes but the majority of it doesn't make it into the pockets of our schools. Utah has one of the lowest per-student costs for education in the nation. We need to do more.

The 1% send their kid to private schools. Other wealthy kids go to charter schools.

(15) And the rest of the state is left to fight over the scraps left to public schools. This is the future DeVos has envisioned for your education system.

Where private schools and charter schools privatize education and everyone else continues to struggle to get by.

(16) Why can't we have schools filled with sunlight where qualified teachers care for our kids, they eat nutritious food, and we send them home with capable drivers on buses that don't spew toxins into the air. I'd pay a little more in taxes for that.

WHY IS THAT SO HARD?

(17) I'm continually puzzled by how we can fund huge tax breaks for corporations like Adobe to come put their headquarters here or leases for mining companies to drill and strip our public lands, but we can't get my son home from school.

In Utah, children are supposed to come first. It's considered one of the most family-friendly states in the nation.

I'm still waiting for a budget that reflects those priorities. (END)