Worse, $39K/year is extrapolated to full-time equivalent, which the job is not. Per the article:
But school bus drivers don’t work year-round, full-time hours. “We’re only guaranteed four hours of pay a day,” Steele said.
There are no paid holidays or sick days, she and other bus industry experts say. Benefits vary from company to company, and there’s no guaranteed work at all in summer. “Spring break is all unpaid. Every teacher-compensatory day, every snow day, any time they cannot pay us they will,” Steele said. She added that a recent, failed unionization effort among the Robbinsdale bus drivers started in part as a fight for snow-day pay.
so of course you have to figure out how to pay them for something else during the day. Why don't hire them to be workers in the school (sometimes called para-professionals).
If the schools can't hire enough bus drivers then they simply have to pay more money or not offer busing. The schools don't have tons of money just sitting around, so the next step is more taxes.
The walk to anywhere my education happened until I was 18 was took 10 minutes. after that, when I went to college, I had a bus stop about 200 meters from my house that got me there in another 30-40 minutes depending on traffic and such. I didn't finish college and pursued a different kind of higher education degree, that was about a 15 min ride via subway, the stop being less than 3 min away from my home. Then a different one of the same kind, which was a 15 min walk from my home.
My impression is that numbers like this are not at all the usual in the US, I will concede that the area in which I live is pretty well connected, but to be clear, these aren't crazy numbers by any measure.
Where I live we don't even have sidewalks in large amounts of the city, let alone crossings, and heavy snow for three~ months of the year.
With high enough population density and near-by schools these ideas could work, but the US is very spotty and way way too car-centric for this to be a turn-key solution.
My daughter will start kindergarten next fall here in the US; she’ll walk to school through elementary school (500 meters) and middle school (800 meters). Not walking to school is not an “American” thing, it’s a “suburb” thing.
Or they use public transport: Kid me in Germany had a daily 30 minute public bus commute from primary school to day care, and about a similar commute back from there to home.
Secondary school was a 30 minute subway commute to it, and back from it, 5 times a week.
Not much has changed about that in the decades since; To this day one of the most crowded times in German public transport is right after school ends at 1 PM.
I experienced this as a foreign exchange student… and it permanently ruined me. There’s just no way for me to recreate this experience for my kids, but I am glad that our school district is working hard to put locally grown produce on lunch trays, even if I’d rather have the kids walk home for lunch. It just isn’t a practical model for most American families where parents work outside the home and often with long commutes. Am glad more people are working from home - maybe this model will someday be practical.
In my 35,000 person city, we’re facing real school budget issues due in parent to shifting population. Our superintendent is a smart guy and has made a number of moves to help maintain buildings and services. One of his first moves was to better optimize the bus routes, which was claimed to save $400K / year. Unfortunately the true outcome was that more parents gave in and started driving their kids to school because the bus service is now so crappy.
I just now remember a presentation about how hard it is for public schools to save money. Just one of the many examples was busing.
Apparently, staggering schedules is obvious low hanging fruit. Instead of all the schools starting at (roughy) the same time, break it up into 1/3rds. Eliminates need for 2/3rds of buses and drivers. Employ remaining drivers near full time. Win, win, win.
Proposal is floated on a regular basis. Broadly popular with parents in the strictly hypothetical sense.
And then most every parent loses their frikkin minds once the details become more concrete.
So administrators recoil from the shit storm. And we're stuck with 3 times the number of buses and drivers than is actually needed with a more rational schedule.
The problem in my case is that my kids would need to be at the bus stop an hour before school, when school is less than two miles away. Makes more sense for me to let them sleep a bit more, have a proper breakfast, and then take the 15 minutes to get them there and on with my day. Given the number of cars in front of the school, I think a lot of parents are making the same choice.
> The remaining 37 percent of per-pupil spending [1] covers everything from school administration, transportation, food services and facility operations. [2]
[1] In 2019 total per-pupil spending in Minnesota was approximately USD 14 000, so USD 5 180 was available per-pupil for these non-classroom items, including transportation.
There isn’t much managing on a bus when you are driving. And one kid is not a lot of difference than 18. Is a highly scalable problem, unlike teaching.
I quit after my first day because driving without kids and driving with kids was so different that I was no longer confident in my ability to drive safely without more training (which the district was not willing to provide).
This feels like a leftist propaganda article. There are thousands of jobs that none of us can imagine doing because we don't understand what it actually takes.
Looking at it, driving a school bus does not seem to be any harder than driving any other bus, or truck. Does not seem to be harder than cutting up chicken, doing roadwork, cleaning a chimney, baking bread. What is with trying to paint school bus driving as some special kind of hardship.
If anything it seems easier and more pleasing than the other jobs I mentioned.
You get a ton of time off, all school breaks and summers, and you only have to work for a specific few hours a day. You get a sense of satisfaction getting kids to school and home, you get to see people, talk to some. There is direct feedback and shows you the value of your work. Why does it matter how many tons the bus is? You don't need to lift that.
If you want to make some part time money, driving a school bus seems a lot more fun and more entertaining than a lot of other jobs.
If there is a bus driver shortage then that is because the people that used to drive the school bus (retired and part time workers) don't want to do it anymore. But reasons are not explored or explained at all. Hence we learn nothing of the real reasons that we have a school bus shortage.
In my opinion drivers are afraid of catching COVID from the kids, so it is not a problem that raising the pay would address.
I'm all for decrying leftist propaganda, but if you think driving a massive vehicle while a bunch of screaming kids get up to god-knowns-what behind you is "fun and entertaining" you probably need your head examined.
you talk like someone that never seen a school bus, let alone been on one
I have, in the past, pre-covid, most people that drove the bus seemed content, happy to do so, cheerful, getting kids on and off a bus seemed a enjoyable time for everyone. Plus I've talked to many bus drivers, none seemed to indicate any trouble.
Painting the job as something terrifying is absurd and lines up with the absurdity of the paper:
"oh my GOD! Kids .... we all know kids are evil ... kids plus 15 tons of a vehicle ... ohhh it must be terrifying"
Readit News
Uh, pay the drivers more than $37 a year, that wage is a joke anywhere in the US
But school bus drivers don’t work year-round, full-time hours. “We’re only guaranteed four hours of pay a day,” Steele said.
There are no paid holidays or sick days, she and other bus industry experts say. Benefits vary from company to company, and there’s no guaranteed work at all in summer. “Spring break is all unpaid. Every teacher-compensatory day, every snow day, any time they cannot pay us they will,” Steele said. She added that a recent, failed unionization effort among the Robbinsdale bus drivers started in part as a fight for snow-day pay.
If the schools can't hire enough bus drivers then they simply have to pay more money or not offer busing. The schools don't have tons of money just sitting around, so the next step is more taxes.
And walk home for lunch.
The walk to anywhere my education happened until I was 18 was took 10 minutes. after that, when I went to college, I had a bus stop about 200 meters from my house that got me there in another 30-40 minutes depending on traffic and such. I didn't finish college and pursued a different kind of higher education degree, that was about a 15 min ride via subway, the stop being less than 3 min away from my home. Then a different one of the same kind, which was a 15 min walk from my home.
My impression is that numbers like this are not at all the usual in the US, I will concede that the area in which I live is pretty well connected, but to be clear, these aren't crazy numbers by any measure.
With high enough population density and near-by schools these ideas could work, but the US is very spotty and way way too car-centric for this to be a turn-key solution.
Secondary school was a 30 minute subway commute to it, and back from it, 5 times a week.
Not much has changed about that in the decades since; To this day one of the most crowded times in German public transport is right after school ends at 1 PM.
Apparently, staggering schedules is obvious low hanging fruit. Instead of all the schools starting at (roughy) the same time, break it up into 1/3rds. Eliminates need for 2/3rds of buses and drivers. Employ remaining drivers near full time. Win, win, win.
Proposal is floated on a regular basis. Broadly popular with parents in the strictly hypothetical sense.
And then most every parent loses their frikkin minds once the details become more concrete.
So administrators recoil from the shit storm. And we're stuck with 3 times the number of buses and drivers than is actually needed with a more rational schedule.
If people have in the past lived on X, why could they not live exactly the same now on X?
Many things are cheaper or free now. YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, etc. provide hours of entertainment for "free". Streaming music, etc.
70'' tvs are cheap, ad supported.
Clothing is cheaper. Disposable electronics and garbage products cheaper.
Durable physical goods, tools, and food are more costly. Cars. Houses. Things of value and craftsmanship.
> The remaining 37 percent of per-pupil spending [1] covers everything from school administration, transportation, food services and facility operations. [2]
[1] In 2019 total per-pupil spending in Minnesota was approximately USD 14 000, so USD 5 180 was available per-pupil for these non-classroom items, including transportation.
[2] https://www.twincities.com/2019/10/27/heres-where-minnesota-...
I quit after my first day because driving without kids and driving with kids was so different that I was no longer confident in my ability to drive safely without more training (which the district was not willing to provide).
It doesn't sound hard, but it is.
Looking at it, driving a school bus does not seem to be any harder than driving any other bus, or truck. Does not seem to be harder than cutting up chicken, doing roadwork, cleaning a chimney, baking bread. What is with trying to paint school bus driving as some special kind of hardship.
If anything it seems easier and more pleasing than the other jobs I mentioned.
You get a ton of time off, all school breaks and summers, and you only have to work for a specific few hours a day. You get a sense of satisfaction getting kids to school and home, you get to see people, talk to some. There is direct feedback and shows you the value of your work. Why does it matter how many tons the bus is? You don't need to lift that.
If you want to make some part time money, driving a school bus seems a lot more fun and more entertaining than a lot of other jobs.
If there is a bus driver shortage then that is because the people that used to drive the school bus (retired and part time workers) don't want to do it anymore. But reasons are not explored or explained at all. Hence we learn nothing of the real reasons that we have a school bus shortage.
In my opinion drivers are afraid of catching COVID from the kids, so it is not a problem that raising the pay would address.
I have, in the past, pre-covid, most people that drove the bus seemed content, happy to do so, cheerful, getting kids on and off a bus seemed a enjoyable time for everyone. Plus I've talked to many bus drivers, none seemed to indicate any trouble.
Painting the job as something terrifying is absurd and lines up with the absurdity of the paper:
"oh my GOD! Kids .... we all know kids are evil ... kids plus 15 tons of a vehicle ... ohhh it must be terrifying"