The Pittsburgh school bus driver crisis
Imagine standing outside in the cold as you wait and wait for a bus that never arrives. You might feel worried, confused or frustrated. You may be upset that you’re going to be late, or angry that your day has been disrupted. You’d definitely be asking, “What went wrong?”
That’s what millions of parents across the U.S. are wondering about our nationwide shortage of school bus drivers. According to USA Today, every state in the country has experienced at least one disruptive school bus driver shortage so far this year.
Districts of all sizes and locations are being affected, which is causing students to miss classes, drivers to work longer hours, and parents to miss work as they scramble to find other ways to get their kids to and from school.
Reasons for the shortage
There are several reasons for the shortage. The most significant issue is that driver retirements are drastically outpacing the influx of new applicants, and solving this problem is proving more difficult than anyone imagined.
Despite many districts offering increased wages and bonuses, there still aren’t enough new drivers. Many of them changed careers during the COVID–19 pandemic when demand fell due to school closures, leaving a large gap in available personnel. Trucking and delivery services also typically pay more than school districts can pay, which forces schools to compete at a disadvantage for commercially licensed drivers.
Additionally, many people are unaware that Pennsylvania requires school districts to provide transportation for students whose families choose alternative education within 10 miles of the district’s perimeter. For a district like ours, that means serving approximately 350 students with 45 routes and drivers dedicated to serving students who live within our community but attend schools elsewhere.
As a result of these complications, the Baldwin-Whitehall School District had to suspend a school bus route due to a lack of drivers for the first time in our history. It was a decision we did not make lightly, but it’s also a decision I fear we may have to make again and again if more drivers aren’t found soon.
Learning to drive
Never in my 33 years as an educator could I have imagined I would need to promise parents that we won’t disrupt a bus route for a second time until every other route has been disrupted at least once, but that’s exactly what we’ve had to do in order to ensure that no single route’s students suffer more than any others.
Something else I never thought I’d be doing is learning to become a bus driver, and yet I’m currently in the process of obtaining my commercial driver’s license. Why? So I can be sure that none of our students will ever be stranded without a way home.
Becoming a school bus driver isn’t easy. The training and testing are rigorous, as they should be, in order to ensure that every person who drives our children to and from school is operating at the height of safety, courtesy, and responsibility.
As I go through this process myself, I feel an even greater respect for the men and women who complete this training. Earning a commercial license is hard work, and every driver who steps up to achieve it deserves our appreciation and support.
Parents must also find ways to chip in and tackle this problem. If you have a school-aged child, you should be preparing a contingency plan for those days when your child doesn’t have transportation to or from class. Consider scheduling carpools, organizing a group text for the neighborhood, or having grandparents or other responsible family members on call and ready to drive the kids in case of emergency.
If you really want to help solve the problem, you may want to consider becoming a school bus driver yourself. It’s a great job for responsible drivers who love to help kids start their day off right. The respect you’ll earn from the district is tremendous, and the memories you’ll make with students and parents who depend on you are the kind of unique experiences you won’t find anywhere else.
Disrupted education
School districts are the heartbeat of a community, and disruptions to that rhythm affect everyone. The ongoing shortage of school bus drivers in America is a crisis that no parent or taxpayer can afford to ignore, because every day a student’s commute is disrupted is a day that their education suffers.
Getting our children to school and back safely and on time shouldn’t be one of the biggest challenges facing America today. We can do better, and we must.
If we don’t, the challenges of getting our children to and from school will be the lesson they remember most clearly.