Shortage bus1/27/2024 ![]() Asking fewer bus drivers to pick up more students means longer routes, earlier morning pick-ups, and later drop-offs. ![]() Like other public education workers, public school bus drivers are being asked to do more with less overall capacity. This marked decline reflects the results of austerity and budget cuts beginning in the early 2010s.ĭuring the same period, student enrollment at public K–12 schools grew by 1.4 million. Approximately 290,000 bus drivers were employed in the fall of 2009, but those employment levels declined 21.8% by 2019. Figure A shows that even before the pandemic, the number of bus drivers working in elementary and secondary schools had not returned to levels that existed during the Great Recession. 1Īlthough school bus driver employment has increased from its trough in the pandemic (when it was down 32.5%), states and local governments have much to do to return school bus driver numbers to adequate levels. ![]() Employment for state and local government school bus drivers has fallen 13.6% to 156,600 workers over the same period, while private school bus driver employment has declined 21.5% from 43,300 workers to around 34,000. There were approximately 192,400 bus drivers working in K–12 schools in September 2023, down 15.1% from September 2019. The data show that school bus driver employment continues to be far below pre-pandemic levels. The figure shows employment broken out by whether the bus driver is a state and local government employee (i.e., they’re employed by the school district or other relevant state or local public agency) or a private-sector employee (i.e., the school district contracts bus service to a private company or the bus driver works for a private school). With many students and families already trying to recover from challenges and learning disruptions caused by the pandemic, it is more important than ever to have services as basic as bus transportation to school functioning effectively.īus driver employment has improved, but remains woefully inadequateįigure A shows 12-month rolling averages of K–12 school bus driver employment. Reduced bus services can be a particularly challenging hurdle for children with disabilities, who sometimes travel far distances for specialized education. Interrupted services and instability can disrupt learning time and contribute to absenteeism. Roughly half of school children rely on bus services to get to school. School bus drivers remain a vital part of the education system. Meanwhile, in New York City, the union contract for school bus drivers expired, with contentious negotiations resulting in a narrowly averted strike. In Louisville, Kentucky, school district leaders fumbled the rollout of an expensive new routing software intended to reduce the number of school bus drivers needed, leading to misplaced students and forcing the school district to halt classes for more than a week. The turbulence resulting from these shortages has at times been dramatic. ![]() When students returned to school in August and September, numerous media reports drew attention to school bus driver shortages across the country.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |