Editorial: Leadership, not crises, should shape Boston policies

It shouldn t take a child s death to prompt scrutiny into school bus safety standards But this is Boston where leadership focuses too often on Washington and political agendas and not on the day-to-day lives of constituents Lens Arthur Joseph a -year-old kindergartener at Up Academy in Dorchester was struck and killed by a school bus after being dropped off on Washington Street in Hyde Park after school on April Driver Jean Charles was placed on leave then resigned As it turns out Charles had an expired school bus certificate at the time of the accident according to BPS and the city How did a school bus driver work in Boston with an expired certificate Are there any other bus drivers picking up and dropping off the city s children without the necessary certifications Boston parents deserve to know and they need someone in city leadership to do their job Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn posted on X An outside examination BostonSchools Transdev the City s contracted school bus management company must be conducted to determine how drivers are screened trained certified supervised to ensure they meet the highest standards A hands off BPS practice is not acceptable He and fellow Councilor Erin Murphy are filing a hearing order to review hiring training and compliance certification of Boston school bus drivers But why has it come to this Surely someone was tasked with performing this function Then again making sure Boston school buses ran on time was supposedly someone s job as well and it took a delay debacle to push the predicament into the spotlight The Boston school district was teetering on the edge of receivership in when it struck a deal with the state The Systemic Improvement Plan included an on-time bus performance benchmark of Last fall Mayor Michelle Wu touted improvements saying the district was starting the year with the highest on-time bus performance for the first day of school in five years If Boston hadn t faced receivership would these improvements have been made Or would it have taken another five years before parents could see their child hop on the school bus instead of waiting for a no-show As Flynn and Murphy take on the bus certification hearing order the mayor is far from idle She s joining other cities in filing an amicus brief to stop the Trump administration s ending of an immigration humanitarian parole scheme Not to be confused with the other stop Trump lawsuits she s a part of Making sure the people who drive Boston school buses are trained and certified isn t as high-profile as a lawsuit against the president There are fewer sound-bite opportunities nor any progressive points-scoring photos of testifying before Congress but it is critical to Hub parents There are plenty of things in Boston that need attention including City Hall The latest disgrace involving Boston s chief of staff for the office of police accountability and the neighborhood business manager for the office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion both arrested on charges related to an alleged domestic assault belies any asserts that city leadership runs a tight ship It s commendable that Flynn and Murphy are calling for school bus driver scrutiny It should never have been necessary Editorial cartoon by Joe Heller Joe Heller