JCPS has already stopped busing kids involuntarily

We want to thank former WDRB-TV General Manager Bill Lamb for his clear-eyed opinion piece “Splintering JCPS creates more problems than it solves.” We couldn’t agree more with his conclusion that splitting Jefferson County Public Schools into three or four districts would result in more bureaucracy, higher taxes and a new imbalance of resources and racial equity for JCPS students and their schools. We believe the effort by some members of the General Assembly to form a commission to “help JCPS” is a move toward a predetermined outcome of breaking up JCPS which, as Mr. Lamb suggests, is just a bad idea.

JCPS has already stopped busing kids involuntarily

While we appreciate and support Mr. Lamb’s overall conclusion about the future of JCPS, we want to clear up some misinformation in his column - misperceptions that appear to be widely shared by many Louisvillians. Lamb suggests JCPS should “return to neighborhood schools” and stop busing students involuntarily.

We’re already doing that.

With the implementation of the School Choice Plan this school year, there will no longer be any students forced to take a bus to a school outside their home area. Until this school year, the majority of students who were involuntarily bused were Black students from West Louisville. Now all families have the choice to attend a school closer to home. So far, West Louisville elementary and middle school families are choosing, overwhelmingly, to stay in West Louisville. However, most of these students will still need transportation even if their school is closer to home.

Teachers are receiving pay incentives at JCPS

Lamb’s op-ed also suggests that JCPS should assign some of its best teachers to schools in lower income areas - “let’s pay them a premium to incentivize them to take those assignments,” Lamb writes. We’re already doing that as well. Teachers in our 44 Choice Zone (mostly West Louisville) and current Accelerated Improvement Schools (AIS) earn an extra $8,000 per year.

While we recognize that JCPS has its challenges, our teachers and staff are working hard each day to meet those challenges and give every student an equal opportunity to succeed. We hope Bill Lamb’s op-ed will help put to bed this unwise notion that breaking up JCPS would be in the best interests of Jefferson County taxpayers or, more importantly, our students.

Marty Pollio, Ph.D., is the Superintendent for Jefferson County Public Schools