It may be time for many students to return to school, but in some places bus drivers are not on hand to get them there, leading one school to offer parents $700 to drive their kids to school this year.
“I wish I could use that money for buses, but I can’t because we don’t have drivers,” said Aaron Bass, Chief Executive Officer of EastSide Charter School in Wilmington, Del., according to the Washington Post. “It’s one more economic ripple from the pandemic.”
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In addition to bus drivers, Bass said EastSide has struggled to find janitors, cafeteria workers, psychologists, counselors this school year, even though it has plenty of funding. To tackle the transportation conundrum, he’s using funds to send a stipend to students’ families instead of continuing the search for workers. So far, parents of roughly 155 of the about 500 students in the school have signed up, said the Post.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have reconsidered their careers, especially those with jobs that do not offer flexible schedules. Labor issues have been an issue for months, and there was a record number of open jobs this summer in the U.S.
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Economists and school administrators explained that while any schools are adding more janitors, teachers, school nurses and bus drivers to accommodate smaller and more socially distant groups of students, those workers are in high demand in higher-paying industries, said the Washington Post. For example, a rise in online shopping that has led trucking companies and carriers like UPS and FedEx to add tens of thousands of commercial driver jobs.
Now, as COVID-19 rates increase and schools get ready to welcome students for in-person instruction, schools across the nation are dealing with the impact of these issues. Students under 12 are still not able to receive vaccinations, so strict pandemic mitigations are often in place.
In Pittsburgh, the need for more than 400 bus drivers delayed the return to classrooms by two weeks. In Chicago, companies have increased pay for drivers amid a severe shortage of drivers. Washoe County School District in Nevada is offering $2,000 bonuses to new bus drivers.
As less drivers apply for jobs, there is an increased demand for them due to continued social distancing guidelines to prevent COVID-19 spread that allow less people to ride on busses.
For the Educational Service Center of Lorain County in Ohio, the shortage has made field trips nearly impossible.
“I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before,” said Superintendent Franco Gallo.
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For parents such as Nichole Britt of Albuquerque, N.M., the driver shortage has forced her to take time off work.
“We’re starting a new school year in a new school in a new state, and now here’s one more thing that wasn’t on our radar before,” she said.
Apart from staffing shortages, production issues have also been hitting schools as the new academic year begins for many. Supply chain issues have led to shortages of computers, ketchup packets and dry erase markers, said the Post.
“Every aspect of what’s going in our economy — whether that’s a shortage of building materials or boats stuck in the Suez Canal — is trickling down in some way,” said Kim Rueben, a fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
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