School Bus Drivers Make School Possible. They Deserve Better.
Current pay and benefits for school bus drivers are grossly incommensurate with their incredibly challenging, multifaceted work. When they’re exploited and mistreated, drivers and kids both suffer the consequences.
Jacqueline Smith, a driver-dispatcher and vice president of transportation for her union local, told Jacobin that staffing shortages are causing her and her colleagues to do “double work.” (Armand Aviram)
There’s a term school bus drivers use for the calling many feel to provide kids with protective supervision, comfort, and cheerful encouragement on their daily commutes. They call it “bleeding yellow.”
But ask any nurse or teacher, and they’ll tell you the same thing as many yellow-blooded school bus drivers: Caring is one thing. Having the resources to do the job effectively is another.
The 2021–22 school year has been marked by severe transportation problems across US school districts. In a nationwide survey of those in the pupil transportation industry conducted in August, 78 percent of respondents said their district’s bus driver shortages are getting worse, with 51 percent describing the situation as “severe” or “desperate.”
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