According to the Washington Post on the 7th, more than 200 United States National Guards have been deployed in The United States National Guard to help students from 9 local cities pick up and drop off students every day.
Welcome to the school, where your new driver is wearing a soldier's uniform. Source: The Washington Post
According to reports, members of the National Guard have begun to learn a series of school bus driver specifications, they practice how to open the school bus stop sign, operate the wheelchair lift, and most importantly, they also need to make sure that no children are left on the school bus before stopping.
According to reports, this is the first time that soldiers have "part-time" school bus drivers in the United States, and at present, the United States is facing a shortage of school bus drivers nationwide, which has affected school districts across the country, resulting in traffic delays, interruptions in extracurricular activities and the suspension of offline teaching.
It is reported that there are currently 9 cities in Massachusetts receiving "school bus driver assistance" and plans to expand the assistance area to 13. For now, Timothy McGuirk, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety, declined to say how long the help would last.
A soldier waits for the student to get into the car. Source: The Washington Post
The National Student Transportation Association (NAPT), the National Association of State Student Transportation Services (NASDPTS), and the U.S. School Bus Association (NSTA) recently conducted a joint survey on the shortage of school buses in the United States, showing that as school districts across the country resume offline teaching, most school traffic scheduling and logistics have a huge impact, especially the shortage of school bus drivers.
The survey interviewed a range of respondents, with 51 percent describing its driver shortage as "serious," 78 percent describing it as "worse," 65 percent saying the school bus driver shortage was a "major problem, and only 1 percent saying the school bus driver shortage was "not particularly serious" for them.
A joint survey of school bus shortages was conducted by associations in the United States. Source: NAPT, NSTA, NASDPTS
David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: "Economists are trying to understand why there is a labor shortage during the pandemic, but the explanation we can get at the moment is that uncertainty about government assistance and childcare has led to a lot of people being reluctant to work." ”
"Many workers have realized that some jobs are terrible, so most have started to switch careers," Otel said. ”
According to fox news reported on September 13, in order to solve the shortage of school bus drivers, some communities and enterprises in the United States began to improve the welfare of school bus drivers. A florida public school has proposed a reward policy in which the sign-in bonus for school bus drivers alone is as high as $3,500 (22,000 yuan).
School bus drivers receive a sign-in bonus of up to $3,500. Source: Fox News
New York Governor Kathy Hochul reportedly announced that it has tried to speed up the licensing process for school bus drivers, as well as using information from the Department of Labor to recruit drivers who are currently unemployed.
David Christopher, executive director of the New York Student Transportation Association, estimates that before the pandemic, there were about 55,000 school bus drivers in the state, of whom 15 to 20 percent had left the industry. Christopher said: "It's the driving force behind ageing, it's the epidemic, it's the availability of other types of jobs. ”
John McCarthy, chief executive of the local bus company, who trains school buses for soldiers, said: "Long before the pandemic, the school bus industry was scrambling for workers. I have about 3,700 drivers under me, and 555 have quit their jobs and gone home after September. ”
David Christopher, executive director of the New York State Student Transportation Association, also said that before the pandemic, there were about 55,000 school bus drivers in New York State, of which 15 to 20 percent had left the industry. Christopher said that this could be a precursor to an aging society.
McCarthy said the company's hiring intake has increased in recent weeks, and he hopes this severe understaffing will one day come to an end.
A soldier is transporting students to school. Source: The Washington Post
Mirna Ardon, a local resident of the United States, has a son with autism who, when the school bus is delayed, she and her husband do not have time to drive their children to school, she said: "My son is 14 years old and has autism, and now that the school bus is gone, his daily life has been seriously disturbed. ”
When The Ardennes first saw the school bus driver as a member of the National Guard, she said: "The National Guard has been in the community, distributing food and helping our neighbours. I believe they will treat our children well because they have a sense of trust and respect. ”
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