As the school bus strike enters its fourth week, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio joined parents and advocates to call on Mayor Bloomberg to come back to the negotiating table and end the dispute. De Blasio unveiled a letter, cosigned by over 500 parents—himself included—urging the Mayor to assert the City’s rightful role in contract talks, and to retract the existing request for bids allowing a “cooling-off period” so workers can return to the job while talks continue. De Blasio was joined by District 75 President Joe Williams, Resources for Children with Special Needs, the Citywide Council on Special Education and Common Sense Busing.

“Walking away from the table means walking away from parents. Parents need the Mayor to get back in the game and get drivers back behind the wheel,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. “Families, especially those of kids with special needs, can’t endure three more weeks of this. It’s within the Mayor’s power, and it’s his responsibility, to resolve this dispute.”

“Students with disabilities have a right to go to school, and in many cases, the City has the obligation to get them there. The City cannot just throw up its hands in the face of this obligation; it needs to come to the table and help work out a solution,” said Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children.

“This strike needs to be resolved ASAP. So our kids can access and receive the schooling and services they need in order to make educational progress and their families can be relieved of all the additional stress that this strike is causing” said Lori Podvesker, public school parent of a child with cerebral palsy and policy analyst at Resources for Children with Special Needs.

“As a parent of a child with special needs who receives door to door school bus service, this strike is close to my heart. None of those in charge of busing wake up in the early AM, and are the first faces my son sees in the morning. Or take care of him during the 3 hours a day he is on his bus.The politicians, bus companies, union leaders and all others should be in service to students and the people that actually provide services to them. Each public official needs to be actively looking for a solution to this busing problem,” said Carin Van der Donk of Common Sense Busing.

“Mayor Bloomberg’s refusal to negotiate is causing hardship to school children with and without disabilities. We, the parents and grandparents of bus riding students, will not accept any substitutes for real yellow buses with real certified matrons,” said Margaret DePaula of Parents to Improve School Transportation, a Queens grandmother of two general education students.

The strike began on January 16th and has affected 160,000 students. In their letter, de Blasio and parents urge the Mayor to:

1) Acknowledge the City’s responsibility in finding resolution to this strike. As the National Labor Relations Board made clear in a similar case, the City Department of Education is a party to bus contract bids along with the bus companies and the union.

2) Retract the existing request for bids for special education busing and allow for a ‘cooling off’ period. The request for bids affects over 1,000 routes citywide, and if withdrawn would enable experienced drivers to return to work while contract talks continue on a longer time frame.

(YWN Desk – NYC)