Editorial: Lee County public schools

The Lee County School Board’s decision this week to not pay the $155 in hiring-related costs for new bus drivers raises several intriguing questions. Isn’t that a small price to pay to attract desperately needed bus drivers? Was board member Steve Teuber just trying to make a point when he killed the change? If so, is this just a delay or is the issue dead for good?

The most salient question, though, might be this: We make people pay to become bus drivers? We make someone fork over a $155 check for the privilege of being paid a starting salary of less than $12 an hour to ferry a bunch of kids somewhere they don’t really want to go?

We ask a tremendous amount of our drivers. Not only do they steer the behemoth yellow vehicles, they help clean them, break up fights, deal with surly teenagers and oversee kindergartners who can’t tie their shoes, much less remember their bus stop.

Let’s just say it’s not a high-demand job, and Superintendent James Browder knows it. That’s why he proposed having the district pay the initial hiring-related costs, which would total an estimated $10,000.

His rationale is simple: Don’t pay it and risk running the debacle of the last few years, when buses ran consistently late and kids were arriving at school during second period. The district runs 700 buses each school day, and right now is 40-some drivers short. The incentive, Browder said, could help take care of that deficit.

Teuber was having none of that. He says he’s not convinced the incentives will work and he’s clearly annoyed the district keeps losing drivers it trains to other, better-paying companies.

That’s a legitimate worry, but it doesn’t bolster his argument against incentives. Instead, it begs one last question: If the district’s compensation package can’t keep bus drivers now, why on earth would you make them pay to get a low-wage job?

The answer? You shouldn’t.