Executive Summary
A national school bus driver shortage made headlines around the country during the Fall of 2021, including in Arizona. A steep decline in district bus ridership however began years before COVID-19 in the Grand Canyon State. By 2019 despite the fact that all Arizonans pay school transportation taxes, fewer than a quarter of the state’s public-school students reach their public schools by bus. Along with a burgeoning e-commerce industry which led to increased competition for drivers with the license required to drive school buses, the COVID-19 pandemic made a bad situation substantially worse. District open enrollment and public charter schools have flourished in Arizona, but student transportation policy has failed to keep pace. A reimagined system of student transport has the potential to expand learning opportunities while also improving equity and access.
Modernizing Transportation Options for Arizona K-12 Students
In September of 2021 Governor Charlie Baker activated the Massachusetts National Guard and began training 250 of its members to help transport students to and from school.[i] Arizona faces a similar transportation challenge, with additional issues related to high mobility within the student body. Although the Grand Canyon state has made considerable strides in moving towards a choice based public schooling system, its transportation system, configured for a bygone school system, had been in trouble years before the COVID-19 pandemic worsened matters, district bus ridership in substantial decline.
A diverse and pluralistic system of schools, in which families have access to meaningful schooling variety, depends upon both school proximity and transportation. An increase in proximity increases the number of schools a student can access by walking. An improvement in transportation that increases the distance a student can travel to school will also increase the number of school options. Improvements in both proximity and transportation are particularly welcome during a recovery period from pandemic related learning loss.
[i] Gavin, Christopher. 2021. “Charlie Baker to activate National Guard to help get students to school amid bus driver shortage.” Article appearing on Boston.com, available on the internet at https://www.boston.com/news/schools/2021/09/13/charlie-baker-to-activate-national-guard-to-help-get-students-to-school-amid-bus-driver-shortage/?p1=hp_featurestack.
