Use public buses to carry schoolchildren

Did anyone else note the irony in Scott Maxwell’s Sept. 19 column (“Hiring trouble? Not at this restaurant”) about raising pay rates as a way to fill job openings, placed just above the article about school districts’ difficulty hiring school-bus drivers (“Driver shortage means rough road”)? I hope for the sake of the kids in school right now that the bonuses being offered do the trick. However, I have another idea for the long term: change the school transportation model.

In Italy schoolchildren of all ages take public transportation to school. Could this work here, if the proper stakeholders got engaged? Yes, Lynx would have to change at least its routes and schedules, but a partnership between Orange County Public Schools and Lynx would guarantee riders and potentially benefit workers as well with increased service.

Ingrid Mellone Orlando