This especially holds true for Michigan. The state recorded a 14.3 percent unemployment rate in January, down two-tenths of a percentage point, yet still several points higher than the national average of 9.7 percent. Yet, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner and other top Obama Administration officials warned this week that unemployment could further increase before any sustained decreases in the number of people looking for work.

As we know, the unemployment figures are in reality much higher, reflected by those people who are no longer actively looking for work or their unemployment benefits have expired. Then there are the under-employed, a growing segment of the population. Located about halfway between Detroit and Lansing, Mich., is Howell Public Schools. There, school bus drivers, most of whom are part-time employees, learned this week that they will have to re-apply for their jobs next school year after the school board voted to approve a three-year contract with the Livingstone Educational Service Agency to consolidate bus service.

Howell Public Schools is facing a $3.7 million shortfall in its $66.5 million budget for the 2010-2011 school year. The move to consolidate bus service, board members said, will save the district $500,000 annually, savings in part tied to taking away the drivers' health benefits. The article pointed out that the drivers will retain their retirement benefits, which also would have been lost if the district had hired a private contractor. But retirement benefits don't put food on the table now.

One bus driver said she would take home $11 an hour after taxes next year under the consolidation, but that she would be unable to afford basic medical screenings, such as mammograms.

Routing efficiencies will also likely be a result, as other schools in Livingston County had already signed on to the co-op or were considering the possibility. But at Howell Public Schools, like schools around Michigan and the rest of the country, tough decisions in order to save money are continuing to adversely impact the every day lives of school bus drivers.

The Cransbrook Daily Townsman wrote an article last week on White, who has driven for School District 5 (in in Cransbrook, B.C., for the past 25 years and was recognized as the Association of School Transportation Services of British Columbia's School Bus Driver of the Year.

The article stated that White drove Marasco when the now ASTSBC president and the transportation director at School District 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswapa) was in high school. Marasco.

White, who was nominated by his fellow bus drivers at School District 5 as well as school administrators and student representatives, will be honored in July during ASTSBC's annual conference and trade show in Surrey.

As reported in the November 2009 issue of the School Transportation News, states were expected to change laws or put new policies in place to better align with the federal Race to the Top competitive grant program selection criteria. The article anticipated that states would change laws that limit the number of charter schools in order to increase their chances of winning a share of the funds.

According to a recent report from the National Conference of State Legislatures a few states have done just that—they have modified charter school caps as well as make other changes that could have a direct or indirect impact on school transportation.

From the NCSL report, here is a sampling of policy changes state legislatures enacted to better align with the Race to the Top selection criteria:

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA) had a positive effect on state budgets as spending and state service cuts in education and other areas would have been much deeper had the federal funds not been available, noted a February 25, 2010 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a policy organization that analyzes fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

The ARRA gives states roughly $140 billion over a two-and-a-half year period to help fund ongoing programs, and the money is addressing approximately 30 to 40 percent of states’ 2009 and 2010 budget, the Center reported. But much of the money from the ARRA is for specific uses, and governors can only use a piece of their allotment to balance their budgets.

Several factors indicate an even gloomier outlook for 2011 state budgets. One is the continuing decline in tax revenue — the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record since the recession of the 1930s, according to the CBPP.

A February 2010 report issued by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government states experienced sharp declines in tax collections in the last quarter of 2009 — a record fifth straight quarterly drop. The Institute said that states that already have slashed spending or raised taxes will need to do more to make up for losses.

Second, the funds from the ARRA were meant to be distributed over a two-year period, and those two years end in 2011. ARRA funds are permitted to be used to “backfill” budgets (make up revenue shortfalls) as long as a state, once the ARRA funding ended, does not cut below education funding levels from fiscal year 2006. However, such a “funding cliff” is indeed a reality for many states as the economy struggles to recover.

In mid February, nearly half the United States governors had submitted their budget proposals for the upcoming 2011 fiscal year (which begins on July 1, 2010 in most states). While state legislatures must approve (and may significantly change) the governors’ proposed cuts, more cuts in funding for K-12 education loom large in 29 states and the District of Columbia, the CBPP said in its analysis of these proposed budgets.

In the United Kingdom, some schools will be implementing a program to deter bad behavior on the school buses, and using films and TV shows to do it. In an article on the BBC News Web site, a 12-month pilot program, called Zoom, will consist of showing age-appropriate movies, concerts and nature programs to students during their rides to and from school. They even go as far as mentioning: "In the USA, entertainment systems are already used to reduce antisocial behaviour. They also report positive results."

When I pack my wife and kids into our Suburban for a long car trip, I always make sure there are plenty of movies for the backseat bandits to watch. The inclusion of a DVD player was a definite selling point when I first looked at buying the SUV, and it comes in handy whenever we take a trip up north to visit our relatives. Now, I am not a proponent of using TV to "babysit" your kids in any way. My two boys and two girls are all very active and use their imaginations in ways that no television program or video games could ever compare to. But, when everyone is stuck in one place for an extended amount of time with a regulated amount of room to stretch, there is nothing wrong with throwing in a copy of Shrek or Lilo and Stitch to pass the time.

True, the costs of installing DVD players and TV monitors in school buses seems out of reach when some districts are fighting to keep the buses running, but it has some hidden cost savings as well. Think of all the time that is spent quelling disruptive behavior during bus rides, the paperwork involved with writing up an incident report, or the stress of watching the road and the 50-plus kids behind you. A little TV to keep everyone in their seats and occupied seems pretty priceless to me...