As temperatures drop and the leaves turn, the sound of school buses, making their morning rounds, are often associated with the beginning of fall. Why is that? It’s probably because people don’t typically see school buses in summer when schools aren’t in session.

So, should we be seeing school buses right now? In Fairfax, VA, the department of education has said yes. School buses are spinning their wheels even though all students are attending school virtually. School bus drivers are running their routes with empty buses to stay on the payroll. But why? Is it because schools don’t want to cut budgets or furlough employees? Though taking care of employees may feel like the “considerate thing to do” right now, is it really the most ethical? We would argue NO for two reasons:

#1 The environment:

The Fairfax bus fleet is no small operation. According to a 2018 article, the school bus fleet was 1,630 school buses which is larger than Greyhound’s entire fleet. They also rank 2nd in the country for the largest number of students transported by school bus. So, in a season where we’re facing unprecedented forest fires and hurricanes, Fairfax is adding unnecessarily to the traffic, pollution, and emissions when students are staying home. A letter that went out this summer suggested that maybe buses would be delivering food or reusing bus drivers in alternate places around campus, but that doesn’t seem to be happening according to The Washington Post. 

# 2 Spending:

As previously mentioned, seeing buses rounding corners feels like a sign of fall, largely, because no school buses seem to run in summer when school is not physically in session. So, why are they running now? Administrators are spending taxpayer dollars on salaries (over $19 an hour for roughly 1,200 drivers), but they are also paying for fuel and bus maintenance as bus drivers drive their regular hours for nobody. The larger problem here is, for the most part, school budgets do not fluctuate based on services children actually need. Per the bus example, when students need buses, they are funded. When students don’t need buses, they are still funded. Schools keep spending, spending even when the school building is empty. 

Think about it this way. The same letter said food services employees would be making food to be delivered to those with food insecurities. That seems reasonable, but notice that these meals are being made for actual students, not for pretend students who are now absent from the school. Can you imagine asking food services to make their usual daily food amounts only to throw it all away? If bus drivers are driving their routes pretending to transport students today, how many other non-teaching school system employees are pretending to do a “necessary job” for imaginary students during the rest of the year?

Sure, some of these situations (like no one riding the bus) will come and go as COVID conditions change. But these unusual times are revealing other problems as well. Consider, for example, the surge in non-teaching administrative jobs. Would students even miss those positions if they were eliminated? Teachers do a necessary job, but school systems have been short-changing students and teachers for years with excessive spending on administrative and non-teaching positions. 

The Fairfax bus story is a reminder that many public schools can’t pay teachers more because they operate with too much inefficiency and waste. Be a part of the change, and consider a different model.