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The JCPS bus plan is hurting our community, the board should rescind the vote

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The economic facts of the JCPS decision matter, and should be taken into account.

Maggie Harlow and Christina Shadle
| Opinion Contributors

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If you’re asking yourself, “What’s best for the children of Louisville?” or even “What is best for the economy of Louisville?”, it is clear that the Jefferson County School Board should withdraw their transportation plan which, among other impacts, eliminates bus transportation for non-resident students who are one of the Attend Academies of Louisville programs. As entrepreneurs and supporters of the Academies program, we urge all parties to come back to the table and continue to grapple with this issue.

As the plan stands now, the new JCPS bus plan abandons the promise of opportunity for students and businesses. At a time when Louisville companies need more skilled workers, they are likely to find fewer candidates among JCPS graduates. While there has rightly been much discussion about the lack of busing for magnet and traditional schools, we invite you to consider the business implications arising from the lack of busing for students at the Academies of Louisville. This decision impacts these students, and employers, in ways that should concern us all.

JCPS paid for a transportation audit. Then they ignored the results and failed 20,000 students.

The Academies of Louisville program is designed to support the economic clusters that drive Louisville’s economy – from logistics to culinary arts, health sciences to crafts and more. Housed in Jefferson County schools, these small learning communities provide a window into the broader marketplace and connect students directly with Louisville businesses through job shadowing, internships, co-ops, apprenticeships and early learning opportunities. Developed seven years ago, 18,000 students are now part of one of fifteen career academies, and 215 employers and community partners are involved in this work. And the model is delivering results: Since the launch of the Academies initiative, postsecondary readiness has increased by 55%.

Among other benefits, the Academies are a large-scale effort to address the labor shortages facing businesses in Louisville. Mayor Greenberg’s new Strategic Economic Development Plan describes Louisville’s population growth as “lackluster.” Instead of increasing our share of prime working-age residents, Louisville has lost ground over the past decade.” The JCPS Academies are a homegrown effort to better align and prepare the students we have to not only work in these industries, but, perhaps more importantly, to make meaningful connections that encourage them to go all the way to stay in our city. These real-life learning opportunities matter – they matter to our students, and they matter to companies, especially those who make predictions and calculations about how likely they are to find the talent they need here in Louisville, compared to other communities.

The JCPS busing decision limits educational and career options for Kentucky students

Today, young people can make a choice about career exploration when they enter high school. They may live in PRP, but want to learn Computer-Aided Drafting or Design Engineering at Jeffersontown High School. A St. Matthews resident might be excited about becoming an aircraft maintenance technician and therefore choose the Academy @ Shawnee. Under the new bus plan, these choices are effectively off the table for those without access to private transportation. In the future, geographic proximity alone will dictate many study and career choices. How limiting it is to imagine trying to choose a house and a neighborhood based on the career choice you think your preschooler would want to make in twelve years.

It is difficult to argue in a moral or common sense way that we should adopt a plan that makes it harder for students to make college and career choices that excite them, keep them engaged, and show up for school . It’s hard to argue that we should be okay with telling young people they can study anything, as long as it fits into the handy Venn diagram of today’s leaders’ ability to devise solutions to transportation problems in a logistics community of world class. It’s hard to sit idly by while companies that have invested time and resources into this great program are forced to accept a non-solution.

JCPS School Board owes their employees, students and community an apology for the ‘special meeting’

But morals aside, let’s acknowledge for now that this decision is simply bad for business. Bad for the bottom line. Bad for a community that, in the words of the mayor’s strategic plan, ranks a “mediocre 75th” in the 2023 US News & World Report survey of the top 150 cities, compared by the quality of its place, value, desirability and the labor market.

If we weren’t in the middle, we might be able to afford to lose some ground in creating a thriving community, one filled with employment opportunities and working-age adults willing and able to fill these roles. But we simply don’t have that luxury, the luxury of making a decision and not weighing all the intended or unintended consequences. Louisville needs the Academies of Louisville. All JCPS students, regardless of access to transportation, should have the opportunity to choose an Academy. And Louisville businesses need these students and future employees. Those are the economic facts of this issue, and they must be taken into account as we continue to push for a solution to our community-wide transportation crisis.

Our future community calls us to a higher stand on this issue. The board should step back from their vote and do the challenging work of finding bold and innovative solutions that preserve choice and access for all of Louisville’s students while preserving the agreement JCPS and the companies made with this city.

Maggie Harlow grew up in an entrepreneurial family. Her experience running the family’s Tom Payette Jaguar dealership prepared her well to open her first franchise, Signarama, in 2003 with her husband, Brian Harlow. Although Signarama is their flagship company, they have had many more companies over the years.

They are parents of two adult sons; Clay, an entrepreneur himself, and Jack Harlow, a world-renowned rapper and actor pursuing his own legacy in entertainment, business and philanthropy. Maggie and Brian still live in the Highlands section of Louisville, where they raised their children surrounded by family.

For the past 17 years, Christina Shadle has worked as a partner at the Mayan Cafe, a local restaurant that helped fuel the retail redevelopment of Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood. During that same time, she has also worked full-time on community and economic development initiatives for a variety of organizations, including the Louisville Urban League, IQS Research and Greater Louisville Inc.

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