What I told the Charlotte school board
Let's bring competence back, starting with a simple promise to parents
I took my first turn at the public-comment mic this week. It was definitely not my comfort zone, but I’m a dad first, and I was tired of wondering where my children are and when they’re getting home off the school bus.
So I asked the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board to request a report on bus delays, and adopt communications standards for alerting parents to changes in arrival time or route.
You can watch my 2-minute presentation here.
My point at the school board meeting wasn’t that I wanted my specific situation fixed, it was to flag a districtwide problem. And my point in sharing this with you here is broader, too.
A decade ago, conservative candidates talked a lot about competence.
Go back to the 2012 era and you’ll hear it everywhere—“run government like a business,” “treat the public like customers,” etc. Leaders like Govs. Pat McCrory, Nikki Haley, and Scott Walker really leaned into that ethic.
I don’t see that really anywhere today. In the Trump era, that emphasis got crowded out by louder fights. Crime, immigration, national drama — all important topics, yes.
But while those debates raged, the everyday systems that touch families before breakfast and after work have continued to slip. That’s what a late bus with no notice reveals. It’s what a dead phone line, a drifting permit timeline, or a no-show storm response tells people: the basics aren’t anyone’s job anymore.
The small, daily promises are where government proves it can still do the job. I want to bring that competence ethic back — here in Charlotte and across North Carolina. It’s not red meat, but it can at least be protein.
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“So I asked the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board to request a report on bus delays, and adopt communications standards for alerting parents to changes in arrival time or route.”
FYI-all school buses have built in GPS and accompanying software to do this. It is the choice of the school district to turn it on. (And pay for it).
Suggestion-one of the largest school buses builders in the country is in High Point, North Carolina- Thomas Built Buses. Go interview them regarding bus safety and what they proactively do. Also, check out at the lobbying groups lobbying the N.C. legislature. You’ll find one called “BusPatrol America”. They monitor both GPS coordinates but they also have cameras in the bus to monitor behaviors.