Schools Desperately Short of Bus Drivers; Carpooling App Needed
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21 responses to “Schools Desperately Short of Bus Drivers; Carpooling App Needed”
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We had a (D) person running for statewide office, who never shows up to any local anything unless its gun control, say money isn’t the issue, its that we don’t have mask mandates (and I’m sure vaccine mandates).
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So, Fairfax County Public Schools had the time, money and interest in paying $20,000 to Kendi for an hour of anti=racism spew but lacked the time, money and interest to make sure they had enough bus drivers?
These people are idiots.
Too dumb to run anything, especially the schools.
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Good job Captain. You are right about the school bus driver moving up to bigger leagues and bigger pay. School bus drivers all ready have the approved driver school training. One trip to DMV for the Class A Road test and paper test and you are there. It is not that high of a bar. Pee test might be the only real barrier. Trucking companies are wise to pick up on seasoned and safe driving school bus veterans.
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I get your points but why is this coming to the fore now? It seemed like there were plenty of bus drivers during the 2018 – 2019 school year, before COVID. Why the sudden departure of school bus drivers for trucking companies?
Is it possible that the school bus drivers are still collecting enhanced unemployment benefits that make returning to work an economically challenged decision?
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The draw of unemployment checks is possible for some of them, but COVID hugely spiked the need for commercial drivers.
Many bus drivers were unemployed or underemployed and joined the common carriers for huge pay raises and better benefits over what they were used to. The local delivery services, in addition to better pay and benefits, offer full time work, regular hours and far better working conditions than do school bus jobs.
I think parents will want to lean hard into car pooling. That is why I suggested coordinated efforts by the school districts through VDOE to offer carpooling applications behind the school parents’ login walls on the district or individual schools websites.
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Aside comment: This is one of those factors/costs that are typically ignored by fiscal conservatives in the small school/large school debate.
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“Eric the half a troll • 23 minutes ago
Aside comment: This is one of those factors/costs that are typically ignored by fiscal conservatives in the small school/large school debate.”No, this is what is known as a red herring. It’s also not something that you can prove, but that’s your SOP.
However, I surmise that like always when you’re confronted with the facts you’ll down-vote and run like the coward you are.
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I have no idea why you believe fiscal conservatives favor large schools over small schools.
On this blog Jim Bacon (a fiscal conservative) has written extensively about the excellent results of small public schools in Virginia like those in Poquoson.
I’ve written a lot about why areas in Fairfax County should form relatively small cities, leave the county school system and establish small neighborhood schools in walkable communities.
Right now the Fairfax County School Board (hardly known for conservatism of any kind) is expanding Justice, Madison and West Potomac High Schools. In other words, they are making big schools bigger not building small schools.
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Different school districts made different assumptions regarding this year. One based their routes on the notion that parents would providing transport and requested parents notify them otherwise. Others made the assumption that all students are riding the bus and planned their routes accordingly. The latter is resulting in children still be at the school around 6 PM.
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Maybe true but ….
Fairfax County Public Schools started classes today.
“WTOP reported that as of Aug. 12, Fairfax County Public Schools was short 190 drivers.”
At least Fairfax County knew they were going to be short before the school year started.
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Spotsylvania was for former district I was speaking of and Stafford was the latter.
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Why not train people people in jail on drug/ theft/ prostitution charges to drive school buses? I mean BIPOCs were almost all unjustly convicted according to BLM. This would be a great way to provide some Equity.
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I thought the discussion was going to get into the COVID relief payments causing less need to work. But COVID impacts are substantial. People have moved, got sick, changed priorities, have different family situations at home, and now we have vaccine mandate I presume bus drivers cannot be vaccine hesitant. It would be interesting to understand if the shortage is loss of drivers, or inability to recruit the same numbers as in the past. But I think they probably need to increase the incentives.
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I have to smile and shake my head when I see stories like this. Back in the olden days, when I was in high school, many of the school bus drivers in the county were high school students. They had a good safety record. Of course, unlike today’s suburban kids, most of these guys had grown up on the farm, or at least in the country, driving trucks, tractors, and heavy equipment before they were old enough to get their drivers’ licenses.
Here is a picture of the 1966 Halifax County High School Bus Drivers’ Club:
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Did they end the program due to a lack of Diversity? That picture appears to be all cis male Wypipo…. No good NOVA SJW would allow little Karen to get on a bus with anyone looking like that.
But we could probably start a Drag Queen bus driving story time program. -
Great story. I would have been in that club. I loved my bus driver Mrs. Flynn. 4th grade to graduation day. That story makes me think of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvSXdO7SDCE
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Some days I walked 3.25 miles to GWHS in Danville. Sometimes I walked after football practice. No carbon footprint at all. I pocketed the fare my parents gave me to increase my allowance.
Danville was a hot bed of the Byrd machine and did not have school buses. The local bus company ran school routes at reduced fares if you purchased tickets from the school. Other wise it was full fare.-
Was it up hill both ways? Just kidding. Good story.
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Hills both ways. And a railroad track that I walked over.
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My mom taught grades 1-6 in Franklin County the early 50’s. At the same time. One room school.
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A big part of the local traffic is school related, especially HS. If more people took the bus I assume that would be more sustainable and less traffic.
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