Give state’s children safe school buses

S.C. schools Superintendent Molly Spearman held a special news conference Monday to plead with state lawmakers to buy new school buses for our children. But don’t assume lawmakers will respond.

The shameful state of the state’s school bus fleet has been evident for years, and that has not prompted the Legislature to do what is necessary to remedy the situation. We hope, however, that Spearman’s request for $95 million to buy 1,000 new buses will persuade lawmakers to act.

The superintendent noted during Monday’s news conference that some S.C. students are riding on buses made in 1988. Of the 1,800 buses bought by the state in 1995, 45 percent still are on the road.

South Carolina, one of the few states that finances its entire school bus fleet, has scrimped on buses for years, often buying older buses that other states have discarded. Many of the state’s 5,500 school buses have logged hundreds of thousands of miles on their odometers.

In 2007, lawmakers crafted the first serious legislative effort in years to upgrade the ancient fleet, the oldest in the nation at the time. The bill required the state to buy enough new school buses – about 480 a year – to replace the entire fleet every 15 years.

But lawmakers consistently failed to allocate the needed money. Funding, as Spearman described it Monday, has been “episodic.”

The one-time infusion of $95 million proposed by Spearman would not solve the problem, but it at least would put 1,000 new buses on the road. Spearman also wants legislators to increase the recurring money for buses to $10 million a year from $3 million.

She also requested another $2.5 million a year to combat turnover of drivers and bus maintenance personnel, another serious problem.

Spearman might have a shot at convincing lawmakers to upgrade the fleet. She is a Republican, like a majority of the members of both houses, and she is a former member of the S.C. House, herself.

Again, though, lawmakers have managed to ignore this dire problem for years. With their failure to address a number of other pressing needs, school buses might not rank as a top priority.

Nonetheless, we applaud Spearman for addressing this ongoing problem and putting a spotlight on it. We hope it won’t take a serious school bus accident to wake up state legislators to the need to upgrade the outdated fleet.

This story was originally published January 11, 2017 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Give state’s children safe school buses."