The amendment, introduced by Plummer and supported by state Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., was part of the state’s operating budget that passed the Ohio House on Wednesday. The budget bill still has to go through the Senate, which could make some changes, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine also has the power to veto line items.
“I’ve had the opportunity to talk to business owners down here, people who work down here and citizens who live down here and they want this problem fixed,” Plummer said on Thursday morning at the Wright Stop Plaza Transit Center in downtown.
Plummer said a large number of students end up downtown before and after school to change buses. Instead of going straight home, Plummer said they hang around, which leads to issues with crime, vandalism and violence.
If the amendment becomes law, as of “the first of July, you will no longer be able to transport kids down to this bus hub to make another connection,” Plummer said.
Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. said the heartbreaking death of 18-year-old Dunbar High School student Alfred Hale should not have happened.
Mims said Hale was changing buses to get to school in the morning when he was shot and killed on South Jefferson Street, just steps from the RTA transit center.
“Instead of being bused downtown, he should have been able to take a bus directly from his neighborhood to his school,” Mims said. “This is a tragic, young life lost.”
The mayor said some adults are preying on and taking advantage of students when they come downtown to change buses. The man arrested this week for shooting Hale was a 23-year-old, not a student.
Police in recent years have responded to a significant number of calls for service to the area near the bus hub, including multiple shootings and other violent acts. Ruzinsky said two years ago that problems often occur when students interact with older non-students in the area.
“We can’t continue to put our children in harm’s way,” Mims said. “We have to find a better way immediately to address the busing challenge that we have for our young people in downtown.”
Plummer said Dayton Public Schools is responsible for school transportation and the district must get its students back on yellow school buses.
Dayton Public Schools officials on multiple occasions have said that biggest obstacle is that the school district is required to bus all students who live in the district geography, even if they go to charter and private schools. That means thousands of students from dozens of neighborhoods, going to dozens of different schools across the region.
District officials say this makes using yellow school buses for transportation prohibitively expensive. And Dayton, like numerous other local school districts, has had a years-long battle to hire enough drivers. The Dayton area has many logistics businesses that attract truck drivers who might otherwise drive school buses.
DPS administrative leadership did not respond to a request for comment. Dayton school board member Eric Walker released a statement of his own, calling Mims’ comments “political posturing” rather than “collaboration or community-first leadership.” He criticized Mims for standing with state legislators who have approved funding for charter or private schools at the expense of traditional public schools.
“The tragic death of Alfred Hale was a loss for our entire city. But exploiting that tragedy to push anti-public school legislation without so much as a conversation with the Dayton Public Schools board is unacceptable.”
Plummer said students who come downtown have caused problems around the bus hub, including at the downtown Dayton Metro Library, which recently instituted a chaperone policy after large brawls broke out involving young people.
He also said the current busing system is unfair to students who are having to spend far too much time getting to school and returning home after school.
“I’m not telling you how to transfer your students, how to do your business, I’m just telling you it’s no longer going to happen in downtown Dayton,” Plummer said.
Plummer said parents who live in the district but whose kids go to non-DPS schools still pay taxes that entitle them to benefit from school busing.
Greater Dayton RTA CEO Bob Ruzinsky said the school district’s busing model is a problem and RTA has opposed it for years.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
He said the school district doesn’t have a contract with the RTA for school busing — the district just buys public bus passes in bulk for its students. He said RTA is not legally allowed to deny the purchases of these passes.
“Dayton Public schools are the responsible party,” Ruzinsky said. “It’s their students, it’s their responsibility to transport their students, and they should be solving this problem.”
Rep. Plummer also got a provision added to the recently approved state transportation budget that requires the Greater Dayton RTA to contract with law enforcement to provide security at the downtown transportation hub.
The RTA says it already meets this requirement because the agency contracts with Dayton police for security at hub.
Plummer said state lawmakers may try to pursue capital dollars or other funding to help pay for an alternative to DPS’ current busing arrangement.
He said the state could impose financial penalties if Dayton students continue to transfer buses downtown if the proposed measure becomes law.
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