Latest news with #RubenCastillo
Time of India
12-08-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Public school transportation in Ohio curtailed as state prioritises private school students
When students in Dayton, Ohio step outside for the first day of school this week, nearly 2,000 of them will find no familiar yellow bus waiting. For Ruben Castillo, an 11th grader at Meadowdale Career Technology Center, the absence of a ride is more than an inconvenience, it is a financial strain. 'I'm going to have to use Uber, and it's going to cost me $25-$30 a day to get to and from school,' Castillo told The Guardian . 'In wintertime, when demand is higher, it's probably going to be more.' Over a 180-day school year, the bill runs into thousands of dollars, a cost he will bear himself. Legal mandate shifts buses away from public school students The shortage is not due to neglect or oversight. According to The Guardian , Ohio law requires public school districts to provide transportation for students attending private and charter schools. Failure to comply can result in fines amounting to millions of dollars. In districts like Dayton, where there is already a shortage of drivers and buses, the requirement has forced administrators to give priority to non-public school students while public school students are left to find alternative transport. Safety concerns prompt end to public bus vouchers For several years, Dayton and other cities such as Cincinnati attempted to bridge the gap by issuing public transportation passes to students. But the system had its own risks. Reports emerged of students facing safety concerns on public buses, and transit authorities struggled to manage the additional demand. According to The Guardian, the tension came to a tragic point in April, when 18-year-old Alfred Hale III was shot dead at a downtown Dayton bus hub while on his way to Dunbar High School. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like No annual fees for life UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Following the incident, Ohio lawmakers passed legislation prohibiting Dayton Public Schools (DPS) from providing public bus vouchers to its students. The burden of daily transport has since shifted to parents, grandparents, local churches and community organisations. Families who choose to continue using public buses must now pay at least $540 a year per high school student. 'There seems to be an aggressive approach to the most vulnerable families and people in America,' said David Lawrence, superintendent of DPS, according to The Guardian . 'Not only is it unfair, it's onerous that public schools have to provide transportation to non-public school students.' Part of a broader education policy shift The situation reflects a broader trend across Republican-led legislatures in the United States, The Guardian noted. In Ohio, lawmakers have established a $1 billion voucher fund for families to send children to private and charter schools, many operated by religious organisations. States such as Texas, Florida, Iowa and Tennessee have implemented similar measures, directing large amounts of taxpayer funding into private school voucher systems. In cities like Cincinnati and Columbus, the impact is visible. Cincinnati has cut more than 100 yellow bus routes, leaving children as young as 13 reliant on public transport. In Columbus, the public school system is required to bus students from 162 private and charter schools, despite more than half of its own students being African American. District leaders say law directly affects service Dayton Public Schools board member Jocelyn Rhynard put the issue plainly in her comments to The Guardian : 'It's simple – if we did not have to bus non-public school students on our transportation, we could transport every single one of our K-12 students on yellow buses.' Currently, DPS transports between 4,000 and 5,000 private and charter school students each day. Republican state representative Phil Plummer, who supported the voucher ban for Dayton, argues that the measure was necessary for safety. 'We had an 18-year-old get shot and killed. The environment for the students is not good down there. The NAACP interviewed the children, they don't want to ride the public transportation buses, they want to ride the yellow school buses,' he told The Guardian . Plummer says he and others located 25 buses that DPS could buy, but claims the district chose not to transport its own students. Cost and procurement challenges DPS leaders counter that meeting current demand would require about 70 buses, a purchase that could take up to two years. 'It's an 18-month cycle,' said Lawrence. 'Buses are $150,000 to $190,000 each to buy, and ones with backup cameras and air conditioning are more expensive. Then drivers have to take at least 10 tests before they become fully qualified.' The law took effect just months before the new school year, leaving families to improvise. William Johnson, a DPS educator, described the logistical challenge for his own family: 'I'm a single dad raising two kids on my own. We all have to be at school at the same time. That's a big dilemma. I'm lucky that my 80-year-old father is going to help out taking them to school. But I ask the state [politicians] – please come up with a solution. We're going to lose a whole generation of kids if this continues.' A community adapting to policy change From the city's bus hubs to its classrooms, the changes have reshaped daily life for thousands of students. For Castillo and others like him, the school year begins not with a ride, but with a reminder of how policy decisions in Columbus can alter the morning routine for an entire community. TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here. Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
The Guardian
11-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ohio requires buses for private school kids. Public school students have to find their own ride
For about 2,000 students attending high school in Dayton, Ohio, there won't be a bus in sight when they walk out the door for the beginning of the school year this week. Ruben Castillo, an 11th grade student at Meadowdale Career Technology Center, is one of them. Ohio law means that public school districts such as Dayton's are responsible for transporting students who attend private and charter schools. When they fail to do so, they risk fines of millions of dollars. A shortage of drivers and buses combined with the threat of fines, means that public school districts in Dayton and around Ohio find themselves relegating their own students to the back of the transportation line. 'I'm going to have to use Uber, and it's going to cost me $25-$30 a day to get to and from school,' says Castillo. 'In wintertime, when demand is higher, it's probably going to be more.' At 180 school days over the course of a year, that's thousands of dollars he is set to fork out from his own pocket. For the past several years, school administrators in Dayton, Cincinnati and elsewhere have been trying to get around the problem by issuing students with bus passes for public transportation. But children riding public buses have reported being subjected to a variety of dangers. Public transportation administrators have also reported difficulties trying to serve the public and thousands of students all at once. The situation came to a tragic head on the morning of 4 April when 18-year-old Alfred Hale III was shot dead at the public bus hub in downtown Dayton while en route to class at Dunbar high school. Shortly after Hale's killing, Ohio lawmakers introduced a law making it illegal for Dayton public schools (DPS) to buy public bus vouchers for students. The burden of getting children to school now falls on students' parents, grandparents, local churches and charities, say officials. Families who choose to continue to have their students use public buses to get to and from school will have to fork out at least $540 per high school student a year. 'There seems to be an aggressive approach to the most vulnerable families and people in America,' says DPS's superintendent, David Lawrence. 'Not only is it unfair, it's onerous that public schools have to provide transportation to non-public school students.' What's happening in Ohio is a result of a wider effort by conservative politicians to push for more children to attend charter and private schools, many of which are run by religious organizations. Republican politicians hold a supermajority across Ohio's legislature and have built up a $1bn fund in the form of vouchers for families who want to send their students to private and charter schools. Ohio is not alone. Republican-dominated state legislatures have been pushing for or have already enacted laws that see billions of dollars of taxpayer money directed to funding private school voucher systems in Texas, Florida, Iowa, Tennessee and elsewhere. In Pennsylvania and Minnesota, where political control is largely split between Democrats and Republicans, public schools are required to provide transportation for students attending non-public schools. In January, Donald Trump signed an executive order steering taxpayer funds from public schools to private schools. Many in Democratic-leaning cities say they are being targeted. In Cincinnati, children as young as 13 are being forced to use public transportation to get to and from school due to funding shortages that this year will see more than 100 yellow bus routes cut. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In Columbus, where more than half of all students are African American, the public school system is required to bus students of 162 private and charter schools. About 1.8 million, or 80%, of all school-going students in Ohio attend public schools and nearly two-thirds of students attending Dayton public schools are African American. In July, the state passed a budget that saw the smallest increase in spending on K-12 public education in more than a decade. 'It's simple – if we did not have to bus non-public school students on our transportation, we could transport every single one of our K-12 students on yellow buses,' says Jocelyn Rhynard, a member of the Dayton public school board. DPS transports between 4,000 and 5,000 charter and private school students every school day. 'It's a direct result of the legislation from the extremist Republicans at the Ohio statehouse mandating that we must transport non-public students as well as public students in our district.' But Republican politicians disagree. 'We had an 18-year-old get shot and killed. The environment for the students is not good down there. The NAACP interviewed the children, they don't want to ride the public transportation buses, they want to ride the yellow school buses,' says Phil Plummer, a Republican party state representative who spearheaded the budget amendment banning DPS from giving its students public bus vouchers. Plummer says he and others 'found 25 school buses' that DPS could purchase. 'They decided not to transport their kids,' he says. DPS administrators, who pay drivers the highest rates in the region, say about 70 buses would be required to meet the need, a number that could take up to two years to procure. Lawrence says the process of buying buses and training drivers is not simple. 'It's an 18-month cycle. [Buses] are $150,000 to $190,000 each to buy, and ones with backup cameras and air conditioning are [even] more expensive. Then drivers have to take at least 10 tests before they become fully qualified,' he says. With the law coming into effect just months before the new school year, parents, students and public school managers have been left in a difficult situation. 'I'm a single dad raising two kids on my own. We all have to be at school at the same time. That's a big dilemma,' says William Johnson, an educator at DPS whose daughter is no longer able to get to school using a bus provided by or paid for the district. 'I'm lucky that my 80-year-old father is going to help out taking them to school. But I ask the state [politicians] – please come up with a solution. We're going to lose a whole generation of kids if this continues.'
The Guardian
11-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ohio law requires buses for private school kids. Public school students have to find their own ride
For about 2,000 students attending high school in Dayton, Ohio, there won't be a bus in sight when they walk out the door for the beginning of the school year this week. Ruben Castillo, an 11th grade student at Meadowdale Career Technology Center, is one of them. Ohio law means that public school districts such as Dayton's are responsible for transporting students who attend private and charter schools. When they fail to do so, they risk fines of millions of dollars. A shortage of drivers and buses combined with the threat of fines, means that public school districts in Dayton and around Ohio find themselves relegating their own students to the back of the transportation line. 'I'm going to have to use Uber, and it's going to cost me $25-$30 a day to get to and from school,' says Castillo. 'In wintertime, when demand is higher, it's probably going to be more.' At 180 school days over the course of a year, that's thousands of dollars he is set to fork out from his own pocket. For the past several years, school administrators in Dayton, Cincinnati and elsewhere have been trying to get around the problem by issuing students with bus passes for public transportation. But children riding public buses have reported being subjected to a variety of dangers. Public transportation administrators have also reported difficulties trying to serve the public and thousands of students all at once. The situation came to a tragic head on the morning of 4 April when 18-year-old Alfred Hale III was shot dead at the public bus hub in downtown Dayton when en route to class at Dunbar high school. Shortly after Hale's killing, Ohio lawmakers introduced a law making it illegal for Dayton public schools (DPS) to buy public bus vouchers for students. The burden of getting children to school now falls on students' parents, grandparents, local churches and charities, say officials. Families who choose to continue to have their students use public buses to get to and from school will have to fork out at least $540 per high school student per year. 'There seems to be an aggressive approach to the most vulnerable families and people in America,' says DPS's superintendent, David Lawrence. 'Not only is it unfair, it's onerous that public schools have to provide transportation to non-public school students.' What's happening in Ohio is a result of a wider effort by conservative politicians to push for more children to attend charter and private schools, many of which are run by religious organizations. Republican politicians hold a super-majority across Ohio's legislature and have built up a $1bn fund in the form of vouchers for families who want to send their students to private and charter schools. Ohio isn't alone. Republican-dominated state legislatures have been pushing for or have already enacted laws that see billions of dollars of taxpayer money directed to funding private school voucher systems in Texas, Florida, Iowa, Tennessee and elsewhere. In Pennsylvania and Minnesota, where political control is largely split between Democrats and Republicans, public schools are required to provide transportation for students attending non-public schools. In January, Donald Trump signed an executive order steering taxpayer funds from public schools to private schools. Many in Democratic-leaning cities say they are being targeted. In Cincinnati, children as young as 13 are being forced to use public transportation to get to and from school due to funding shortages that this year will see more than 100 yellow bus routes cut. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In Columbus, where more than half of all students are African American, the public school system is required to bus students of 162 private and charter schools. About 1.8 million, or 80%, of all school-going students in Ohio attend public schools and nearly two-thirds of students attending Dayton public schools are African American. In July, the state passed a budget that saw the smallest increase in spending on K-12 public education in more than a decade. 'It's simple – if we did not have to bus non-public school students on our transportation, we could transport every single one of our K-12 students on yellow buses,' says Jocelyn Rhynard, a member of the Dayton public school board. DPS transports between 4,000 and 5,000 charter and private school students every school day. 'It's a direct result of the legislation from the extremist Republicans at the Ohio statehouse mandating that we must transport non-public students as well as public students in our district.' But Republican politicians disagree. 'We had an 18-year-old get shot and killed. The environment for the students is not good down there. The NAACP interviewed the children, they don't want to ride the public transportation buses, they want to ride the yellow school buses,' says Phil Plummer, a Republican party state representative who spearheaded the budget amendment banning DPS from giving its students public bus vouchers. Plummer says he and others 'found 25 school buses' that DPS could purchase. 'They decided not to transport their kids,' he says. DPS administrators, who pay drivers the highest rates in the region, say about 70 buses would be required to meet the need, a number that could take up to two years to procure. Lawrence says the process of buying buses and training drivers is not simple. 'It's an 18-month cycle. They [buses] are $150,000 to $190,000 each to buy, and ones with back-up cameras and air conditioning are [even] more expensive. Then drivers have to take at least 10 tests before they become fully qualified,' he says. With the law coming into effect just months before the new school year, parents, students and public-school managers have been left in a difficult situation. 'I'm a single dad raising two kids on my own. We all have to be at school at the same time. That's a big dilemma,' says William Johnson, an educator at DPS whose daughter is no longer able to get to school using a bus provided by or paid for the district. 'I'm lucky that my 80-year-old father is going to help out taking them to school. But I ask the state [politicians] – please come up with a solution. We're going to lose a whole generation of kids if this continues.'
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Health concerns swirl as Bolivian city drowns in rubbish
Health officials in Bolivia's fourth-biggest city raised disease concerns Wednesday as tons of rubbish have accumulated on the streets due to a 12-day-old protest by residents blocking access to its main landfill. Officials warned of a severe public health issue in Cochabamba, a city of 600,000 whose residents have closed off the landfill to demand its permanent closure. The city's health department said cases of diarrhea soared by seven percent in the last week, and those of Hepatitis A -- a viral disease spread through contaminated food or water -- rose by 55 percent. "This could be the beginning" of a health crisis, the department's epidemiology head Ruben Castillo told AFP. Residents living near the K'ara K'ara landfill are demanding it be shuttered permanently, claiming contamination due to improper waste management. "We are demanding our right to health; the municipality does not listen to us," Alcira Estrada, a 38-year-old merchant who lives near the landfill, some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the city center, told AFP. The protest has now seen the problem spread wider, with about 7,000 tons of waste accumulated on Cochabamba's streets, according to municipal estimates. The municipality had agreed last September to close the landfill within six months, but the deadline has now passed. Cochabamba produces between 600 and 800 tons of garbage daily, according to municipal spokesperson Juan Jose Ayaviri. gta/vel/db/mlr/jgc
