Sen. Mark Kelly aims to ease licensing for school bus drivers to alleviate national shortage
Sen. Mark Kelly is advocating for a federal change that could help alleviate the nationwide school bus driver shortage by helping prospective drivers get behind the wheel sooner.
The shortage has forced school districts across Arizona to consolidate or add to existing bus routes, leading to delays or long wait times for students. To attract more drivers, districts have focused on hosting school bus driver hiring events or bumping up pay.
Current federal rules require commercial driver's license holders to be able to identify engine parts and functions. The "Driving Forward Act," introduced by Kelly, D-Ariz., Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on April 3, would permanently eliminate mandatory 'under-the-hood' testing for new school bus drivers.
"This bipartisan bill cuts red tape to help more people become school bus drivers, directly addressing driver shortages,' said Kelly in a press release.
Nationwide, there are 12% fewer school bus drivers available than before the pandemic, according to an Economic Policy Institute study. Kelly's office said the number of school bus drivers in Arizona has dropped by more than half since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cutting under-the-hood testing would not jeopardize students' safety, according to Kelly's office, because school bus drivers must remain on the bus with students. If a bus were to break down, trained mechanics would run diagnostics and complete repairs.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires licensed commercial drivers to be able to identify engine parts and their functions, which typically adds three to four days of training to the process of obtaining a commercial driver's license.
An overwhelming 92.3% of transit agencies see "under-the-hood content as either not at allrelevant or only somewhat relevant for their operators," according to a study from the American Public Transportation Association.
"All agencies have separate maintenance workers who are responsible for routine bus maintenance and breakdowns," the study said. "Operators are never responsible for those functions. Some agencies openly tell candidates that they are required to learn this information only to pass the CDL exam and that they will never use it again."
In 2022, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released a report concluding that under-the-hood exemptions would likely not impact overall safety. That same year, the U.S. Department of Transportation allowed for the temporary waiver of the requirement, with eight states taking advantage of the exemption so far.
Because of the exemption, over 1,200 new school bus drivers have been licensed, according to the National School Transportation Association, which supported the new bipartisan bill.
The National Association for Pupil Transportation previously opposed these exemptions but has endorsed the bipartisan bill, as have the School Superintendent Association and the National Rural Education Association.
While its proponents hope this bill can provide some relief for schools amid the driver shortage, the under-the-hood testing requirement isn't the main thing keeping people from driving school buses.
The Economic Policy Institute found that the bus driver shortage is largely due to low pay. Weekly earnings across all workers saw a 5% increase since 2019, but school bus drivers' earnings fell by about 2.8%.
Recently, Chandler Unified School District voted to increase bus driver pay, hoping to retain its existing pool of drivers. When the district met with its school bus drivers to understand their needs, drivers made it clear that better compensation was their highest priority.
Other districts in Arizona have followed suit. Peoria Unified School District voted to bump the starting hourly rate for school bus drivers by $5 to $24 an hour. Scottsdale Unified School District planned to host a school bus driver hiring event on April 12, promoting competitive wages. And Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District has offered to pay for commercial driver's license training and encouraged teachers and parents to start driving.
Instead of demanding higher wages, the bill aims to make it easier for new bus drivers to start earning their salary quicker, and in turn provide more students with available bus routes.
'Kids in Arizona deserve to get to school safe and on time,' Kelly said.
Coverage of education solutions on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is partially supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation's Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Kelly aims to ease licensing for school bus drivers. Here's why
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