The ongoing school bus driver shortage has impacted schools across Central Florida with some districts offering bonuses to attract new bus drivers, reported Daytona Times.
According to the news report, around 100 bus drivers were still needed in Orange County with the current drivers having to double up on routes. The district is offering bonuses up to $16,000 over the next two years.
Stetson University education professor Rajni Shankar-Brown said that Volusia County Schools where she teaches is also experiencing a bus driver shortage. She said these shortages were driven by COVID-19 retirements, low pay and poor work conditions.
Shakar-Brown told local news reporters that “low-income families are the ones impacted the most by the shortages as they do not have alternative transportation nor the privilege of being able to leave a job and pick up their child.”
Jude Bruno, the president-elect of the Florida PTA, reportedly added that without higher wages for bus drivers, schools will continue to have these problems.
Additionally, along with the school bus driver shortage, the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, said there are almost 10,000 teachers and support staff vacancies throughout the state at the start of the school year.
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