A national bus driver shortage is upending Texas’ beloved Friday night high school football games

Some high school football games look a little different in rural Texas as schools struggle to send cheerleaders and marching bands with their teams to away games. Schools across Texas are struggling to find bus drivers to fill their routes., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

“The atmosphere is really not the same without the band and drill team there, playing and making noise for the team,” said Adrian Belista, a junior at Nacogdoches High and drum major for the band. “It was kind of like a missing piece.” , fueled by such factors as the COVID-19 pandemic, child care challenges and a slowdown in immigration.from the American Public Transportation Association, 71% of transit agencies reported that they’ve had to cut or delay service because of worker shortfalls.

Farther north in Longview, the school district has filled vacant driver roles over the past few weeks. But without subs or alternate drivers, the district continues to run into problems whenever a driver calls in sick. When that happened in late October, the district combined two bus routes, placing more kids than usual on a single yellow bus.

Districts have tried to combat the driver shortage by raising pay rates for bus drivers and by holding job fairs.

Is it Big Pharma related?

Other states utilize their own school busses for this. It isn't rocket surgery.

Education Education Latest News, Education Education Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

A national bus driver shortage is upending Texas’ beloved Friday night high school football gamesThere’s a nationwide bus driver shortage. In Tyler, the school district’s communication team ran a targeted recruitment campaign last year, putting slogans like “Parents Do This for Free; We’ll Pay You’” on the sides of buses. Correction: Previous tweets incorrectly stated that a Tyler school district recruitment campaign for bus drivers used the slogan “Parents Do This for Free; We’ll Pay You.' While that slogan was considered, it was not ultimately used. The story has been updated. There are no labor shortages. If you 'can't find' enough people to hire then you aren't offering enough pay. Labor shortage is such a bullshit euphemism obscuring what's really happening. Same when it's used reporting on teachers. People are commodities first (the labor market) & humans second.
Source: TexasTribune - 🏆 441. / 53 Read more »