NYC NOW - October 15, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

77,000 New Jersey residents or their families will have their unpaid medical debts cleared through a new state initiative. The program will purchase approximately $120 million in qualifying, unpayable medical bills to relieve residents of this financial burden. Plus, the family of a New Jersey train operator killed when her train struck a downed tree is planning to sue the state and New Jersey Transit. Also, parents of New York City public school students worry about even bigger disruptions with the school bus system. WNYC’s Michael Hill and Jessica Gould discuss their concerns as school bus contracts are set to expire at the end of this academic year. And finally, the New York Liberty are gearing up for Game 3 of the WNBA Finals against the Minnesota Lynx.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jared Marcel. Tens of thousands of New Jerseyans are about to get their medical debts wiped out. It's part of a new initiative in which the state partners with the group Undue Medical Debt and Atlantic Health Systems to identify and buy about $120 million in qualifying, unpayable medical bills for pennies on the dollar. Beneficiaries will be notified by a letter if their debt. are selected. There is no application process.

The family of a train operator killed Monday when her train struck a downed tree is planning to sue the state and NJ Transit. WNYC's Brittany Creekstein has more. Kyla Baldwin is an attorney for the family of 41-year-old Jessica Haley, who is driving a southbound riverline train when it crashed near Robling Station. Baldwin says train operators have been worried about trees falling on that wooded stretch of track for years, but nothing was ever done about it. The situation was so bad that the conductors suggested having a track car go down the line every morning before the first passenger car went down to make sure there were no trees on the railway. Haley was a single mom with three young boys.

New Jersey Transit has not yet responded to a request for comment. In New York City, school bus contracts are set to expire at the end of this academic year. And that has parents worried. That conversation after the break. Horror stories about New York City's school bus system are an annual ride of back-to-school season. That's particularly true for students with disabilities who ride city buses to specialize programs across the fire boroughs and beyond. Now, as school bus contracts are set to expire at the end of this academic year, parents worry even bigger disruptions could be on the horizon. For more, my colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's Jessica Gold.

Jessica, what are you hearing from parents about the challenges they're facing right now, this year? Yeah, unfortunately, I've heard quite a few of these horror stories this year so far. I spoke with Ladan Moranvar. She lives on the Upper West Side, and her daughter has severe ADHD and a seizure disorder. She goes to a school in Queens. It's a private program that she's entitled to under federal, special education law. But the bus has taken nearly two hours each way. And sometimes it gets to the school 45 minutes early and sometimes it gets there so late that she misses her first period with

some mandated services she's supposed to get. Her mom also says the longer she's on the bus, the more she's at risk for seizure. When it comes to your own kid and this is happening to them, And I feel like I have no control over it. It's like it's excruciating. Like I think it's stressful for our whole family. So the DOE says they're working with a school to fix this problem. And, you know, they're committed to keeping her daughter and all children safe. But I've also heard similar things about, you know, kids with autism who are supposed to have limited travel time.

But their buses are also over two hours. And I heard about some deaf students at the American students. sign language school in Manhattan, whose bus often didn't show up at all during the first few weeks of school. So these are some of the things I've been hearing. I wonder if Uber or Lypp or some other service like that would be better. We hear stories like this every fall. Why does this keep happening? It's complicated, but I'd say that a good place to start is the sheer size of the school bus system. So it's one of the largest systems in the world. It moves 145,000 kids. in more than 10,000 buses every day, and that's, you know, two times a day. And when it works,

it's a tremendous feat. But too often these buses are unpredictable and deeply inefficient. Experts say there are two big problems that are behind this. One is a bus driver shortage, and the other has to do with old contracts. All right. Let's start with the driver's shortage. That's a national problem, isn't it? Yeah, the demand for bus drivers jobs with low pay and odd hours, that's gone down a lot, especially because there's so much competition now from companies like Amazon who need a lot of drivers. So here in New York City, the shortage hasn't been as bad as it has been in some other places, but the pandemic really escalated things because all of the drivers were laid off. and now the Education Department says there's a shortage of 300 bus drivers, which makes it difficult to staff new routes so you can get shorter routes or even cover existing ones when employees have to call out sick. Now, Jessica, you mentioned contracts. What's the issue there?

Okay, so this is a little complicated. Stay with me. But school bus contracts have labor protection for drivers, which the unions consider essential. It's called the Employee Protection for. provision, and that ensures that veteran drivers get priority for new routes, and they can maintain their wages and their benefits, even if companies get shut down. But of course, this provision costs money, and in 2011, the state court of appeals ruled that new contracts couldn't include it. Then, in 2013, the bus drivers went on strike. Some of our listeners may remember this, and it was hugely disruptive for students and parents. So, New York City, you know, the city itself, parents, advocates, they don't want to see that happen again. The city has been extending old contracts to get around that so that they already include the labor protection.

But officials say the problem is if they're just extending these old contracts, there's no competition and there's no incentives for companies to improve service. And they can't write in new things that kids need now, which is, you know, like after school activities and summer programs, service during those extended times. So city officials, parents, and advocates all say they don't want another strike. They want the state to change the law so the job protections can be included, but that hasn't happened yet and the contracts are going to expire June 30th. How likely is it that we'll see new and improved contracts? Well, city officials, parents and advocates are all putting pressure on state lawmakers, and on the governor to make this change.

But they say it's already too late to fix by next summer. So they'll have to do at least another short-term extension of the contracts once again. At the same time, some parents I've talked to, they want to see the city invest in other improvements. They say things could get better if the city used a better algorithm to match kids, especially kids with disabilities and their roots to schools to make it more efficient or more job. training, you know, even for current students who might want to be apprentices for, you know,

potential bus driving jobs after they graduate. Jessica, there's a lot here. I have to ask this. What happens next? Well, we'll be watching this as it goes through the legislative process. There have been bills introduced in the past. So we will be watching to see if those get put through and are part of the budget. and if the governor assigns them.

That's WNYC's Jessica Gold in conversation with my colleague Michael Hill. The New York Liberty are gearing up for game three of the WNBA finals against the Minnesota Lynx Wednesday night. The lives won game two against the links Sunday. Brianna Stewart scored 21 points and had seven steals, a WMBA finals record. That win tied the series one to one. Game three is in Minnesota. with Jump Ball at 8. The series is Best of Five Games.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jared Marcel. We'll be back tomorrow.