Senate Bill 878 also would create the Access to Public Schools Fund, which would repay districts for transportation costs. The requirement would be limited to public noncharter schools. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, would require transportation for pre-K through eighth graders who live over a half-mile from a school and high school students who live more than a mile from their neighborhood school. New law would expand transportation to all students California is one of the few states that does not require districts to provide transportation to students who don’t have special needs. The school bus driver issue hasn’t received a lot of attention because only a small percentage of California students ride a bus, Flint said. It is considered bad budget practice to staff new, ongoing positions with one-time funds, he said. Covid relief money isn’t the answer, as most of those funds are earmarked for a particular purpose or are one-time funds. Increasing compensation could help with the shortage, but school districts don’t have the funding to do that long-term, Flint said. “This is a big challenge statewide that has sort of fallen in the shadows of the more well-known teacher shortage, but has a significant impact on school operations and the simple ability of students to get to and from school,” said Troy Flint, chief information officer for the California School Boards Association. EdJoin.Org, an online education job board, listed 898 open bus driver jobs in California on March 3. In California, bus drivers are scarce in nearly every district. In urban districts, the number increased to 69%, according to the study. showed that 57% of school districts had a considerable shortage of bus drivers this school year. A recent national survey of 359 district and charter network leaders by the Rand Corp. The bus driver shortage is being felt across the country. They can’t actually survive and feed their families and make ends meet.” They can’t afford to be a bus driver anymore. “I’ve been a bus driver for nine years, and I’ve been a scheduler for a year, and it has never been this bad,” said Olivia Minor, who works for Sacramento City Unified School District. Commercial truck drivers who work locally can make between $60,000 and $88,000 a year, according to the online job board Indeed. Pay for school bus drivers varies greatly, but generally ranges from $15 to $36 an hour for mostly part-time work. But since the pandemic began, health concerns and increased competition from commercial companies, who also have staffing shortages, have made a job as a school bus driver even less appealing. “We are competing with all the school districts, as well as MTS,” or San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System.īus driver jobs, which require specialized training and often have split shifts or six-hour days, and often low pay, were already a hard sell before the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are trying everything - shaking the trees and looking for candidates,” Marques said. The district is short 50 drivers this school year, forcing it to combine and reorganize routes, as well as press other workers - with the required Class B license - into service as drivers, said Marceline Marques, operations support officer for the district. District vans sport ads announcing job openings for drivers. New legislation could make matters worse.Īlthough California has had an acute shortage of school staff throughout the pandemic, school officials cite the lack of bus drivers as one of their biggest problems.Ī large banner is strung across the San Diego Unified bus yard advertising bus driver jobs.
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