What’s the gravest problem presently afflicting K-12 education? I wouldn’t have guessed it but apparently it’s a shortage of bus drivers if this post by Zachary Crockett at The Hustle can be credited:
The shortage is quickly becoming a national crisis:
- In Texas, teachers and basketball coaches are being asked to drive buses before school
- In Pennsylvania, some districts are paying families $300/mo to voluntarily opt out of bus pickups.
- In New York, officials have launched a multi-agency recruitment effort targeted at 500k+ drivers with commercial licenses.
What’s driving this trend?
The Hustle talked to nearly a dozen bus drivers, school officials, and trade groups to find out.
Apparently the factors include that the market is dominated by a limited number of providers, bus drivers tend to be older and, consequently, at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, the pay is low, the schedules lousy, and, increasingly, districts and private providers are in competition with Amazon for the same drivers.
I have a bit of trouble understanding the source of this problem. I never took a schoolbus to school a day in my life—I either walked the mile to school or, when I went to high school (seven miles from home), took public transport. I would think that walking to school should be the preferred solution for all sorts of reasons. According to the post 55% of kids take a schoolbus. Why is that?
I also either walked to school (elementary and middle schools) or took the public bus to high school. However, my family home had a cluster of schools nearby.
In more outlying areas, public schools often serve a wider swath of smaller communities, making school buses part of the necessary landscape of travel to and from school. For instance, in N CA, where we have a 2nd rural home, most public schools are 20 miles away. Consequently, the school bus is a common sighting during morning hours and in the late afternoons.
I feel the school bus driver shortage is simply part of the overall employee shortages felt across the country. The effects of COVID, compounded by the fears created around it, have changed society, making many people become virtual recluses, especially those who are older and seemingly more vulnerable to the virus. Consequently, the jobs predominantly filled by these people suffered, this includes seasoned, reliable poll workers in the last election.
Low pay & split shift lousy hours.
Older folks usually.
Wonder how many of last year’s drivers are among the 700,000.
Illinois law used to require bus service if the school was 1.5 miles away. All of my (four) schools were 0.5 to 1.2 miles from home, so there was never any bus service. For my kids, the schools were 0.5, 3.0 and 5.0. The school district remains under federal desegregation orders, so bussing about one third of students is about equity. But also some neighborhood schools have closed over the last 20 years due to lost population. A lot of trends (suburban sprawl, school choice, and fewer children per sq. mile) mean fewer children live as close to their schools.
The other caveat in Illinois law was that the mile and a half cannot require crossing a major road without a crossing guard. So some schools would go ahead and use a bus in additional instances.
“….Why is that?…”
My elementary school and junior high was four miles from my home, and my high school was 9 miles from my home. The distances are simply too great to walk or ride in a timely manner, and my hometown suffers from heat, rain and high humidity year round. In the 60’s and 70’s there was far less traffic than today; I would not allow my child to walk or ride a bike on the same roads I used as a child. It’s simply not practical in rural areas.
I suspect that there was some tongue in cheek in your intro. Anyway, I would take issue with the notion that bus drivers are the greatest issue facing K-12. Although its a real issue. Yet another example of the unintended (see also: ill thought out) consequences of covid policy and its hysteria and misguided attempts.
I would argue (as a long time reader on education issues, and now a parent who has 2-3 conversations per week with his Wash DC based daughter/teacher who is now gaining some real world experience) that the covid response has been an absolute travesty for young students. A travesty. Born of politics. And…….as becomes quickly oh-so-obvious to those in the cauldron, the pathologies of the family as it relates to their involvement with their children’s education.
Outside the confines of the Wash DC cauldron, thank god some parents are waking (the fuck) up and fighting the school boards. Heh. The school boards are not happy. Good.
“consequences of covid policy ” = ” the pay is low, the schedules lousy, and, increasingly, districts and private providers are in competition with Amazon for the same drivers.”
You heard it here first people.
Steve
Those issues were all existent pre-covid, steve. Only one thing changed. WTFU.
In fact, the local Starbucks I frequent is closing. Prior to covid Starbucks was where people who were looking for their first job or between jobs flocked to. They were machines, and the usual excuses now proffered were never mentioned. Not now, you profess covid nightmares, or more to the point, have the benefit of government payments, so you don’t work. Covid is the only variable that has really changed in the last 18 months.
You aren’t very analytical, are you steve? Or is is it blind partisanship? Do tell.
The driver shortage in my area has been here since we moved three years ago but got worse during Covid. My view is that, here at least, it’s driven by low pay. They raised it this year to $16/hour from $15, which is what my 16yo daughter made working fast food. There is also a shortage of “bus monitors†who essentially keep the kids in line while the driver drives. They start at minimum wage.
Analytical enough to realize that covid wasn’t the cause of low pay. The problem is that your only tool is a hammer and you keep trying to turn everything into a nail. Analytical enough to know that this problem has been around for a while. Schedules have always been lousy. Analytical enough to notice that a lo of your red states ignored a lot of covid mitigation and are also short on bus drivers. Its not just covid policy.
Besides since you are blind about covid, probably from hitting yourself in the head with that hammer, you cant even analyze and realize that a lot of those in their 50s and 60s who are driving buses have valid fears about covid so it isn’t just a matter of government policy. I believe it was you who lauded the (first) Swedish approach to covid. In a nutshell that was to protect those at risk and let everyone else do what they want. So now you have bus drivers deciding to protect themselves, practicing your preferred solution, and you are criticizing this as some nefarious govt policy.
Steve