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Alexandria City has long prided itself on being a place that invests in the success and well-being of its students. From dedicated ACPS staff to a variety of opportunities, we’ve seen real efforts to make this a community where people can thrive. That being said, a current proposal from one of the City Council’s latest ideas — to  take away traditional yellow school buses and have high school students ride the DASH — does not represent this part of our city. As a student of Alexandria City High School, I believe that this plan raises far too many concerns that it cannot be deemed beneficial for us. 

First, the issue of safety cannot be overstated. School buses are designed with student safety as the number one priority, as it should be. Our bus drivers have training and the routes are tailored to minimize risk. Public buses, however, serve everyone, which means students would be riding alongside adults with no school oversight. This raises serious concerns, not just about the exposure to unsafe situations, but on the topic of accountability. If students are forced to ride the DASH bus, without the options of traditional school buses, who takes the blame when something happens? Will the City Council pledge to its inhabitants that they will rightfully take the blame? Even then, we cannot risk it. Our school buses have cameras and a driver, with a monitor, to handle any situation that may come their way, with regards to the safety of students. DASH does not have that. 

Secondly, there’s the matter of reliability. DASH buses are an excellent option for general city commuting. I applaud our city for its tremendous work on its DASH program, but one thing is clear: they weren’t built around the needs of students. Schedules might not always align with class start and dismissal times, students who miss a bus could find themselves stranded or late. There have been times, and I’m sure other students have experienced this, where the DASH electronic signal at the bus stop has falsely claimed a bus was on its way. For families who rely on punctual school transportation, this creates unnecessary stress. I will agree that our yellow buses are late sometimes, but at least parents are notified and the school has a clear communication with the driver. How will DASH keep students updated on whether there is a delay in the route? How will they communicate this with the school? So far, I have not heard how this will be addressed. 

My third concern is from an environmental perspective. As someone who also deeply cares about the health of our planet, I cannot say that this argument is convincing. While DASH is an important public service and is making an amazing effort towards making our city greener, forcing students off school buses risks driving families to use cars more often. This means more traffic around schools, as well as more carbon emissions. In other words, the plan could make traffic and pollution worse around our schools, not better. Do we seriously want more traffic than the one that already plagues our school everyday during rush hour? 

Fourth, this proposal risks making our driver shortage shorter. When you tell school bus drivers that you are cutting their hours, you risk pushing away the very same people who have dedicated themselves to our schools and to my peers. And without drivers, what happens to the after school programs? The clubs? Athletics? What happens to the shuttle buses that run between our campuses during the day? Those activities rely on a strong transportation system, to gut that system would mean that we, the students, will be left stranded. Not to mention, if we lose bus drivers, middle schools, as well as elementary schools, will be affected. 

Fifth, I completely understand what the City Council wants to do. They want to save some money from the budget. Again, our city and school offer so much that I see why we should save a few pennies where we can. But I strongly believe that this proposal, if put into effect, would create more problems than benefit. Cost-cutting can become a bad trade off when it results in missed school days, less participation after school, and a heavier burden on families who will find it hard to adapt. If the student misses classes because they missed a public bus or faced a delay in their schedule, the burden will fall on our teachers, administrators, and the School Board, which were not the ones who proposed this. All students will pay in learning loss and reduced opportunity, things not easily measured in a single fiscal year. 

I know some kids already use DASH, but that’s because most of them work or have other obligations that force them to. It’s a lazy reason to force all high schoolers to use DASH because of this. If students decide to use DASH, it should be an option, not a replacement. 

As it stands right now, we, the students, deem this proposal not beneficial to us. Our City needs to slow the rollout, address the concerns of the community and the School Board, guarantee that no student will be worse off, and protect the people who drive our buses and run our shuttles. That’s the only responsible way to modernize transit without abandoning the very people the system exists to serve. 

Alexandria is smarter than a rushed cut. I care about this because I am one of the students who rides the yellow bus home. It’s safe, fun, and prioritizes me. If our city were to ever put this into effect, the outcome must reflect a thoughtful process where equity and safety are a number one priority. As it stands right now, the process is lacking the very foundation of what this city prides itself on.

Sincerely,

Darwin Salazar

School Board Student Representative

President of Latinos4Latinos+Allies