T The Business of Contracted Busing:
By Art Gissendaner Te use of private contractors to transport students has
emerged as a contentious subplot in the larger story of how education officials are grappling with dwindling budgets and rising costs. Te debate over the possible cost-saving benefits of
privatization to taxpayers has morphed into a convoluted discussion of labor issues that pits district officials and con- tractors against bus drivers and their bargaining units. Familiar names such as the Teamsters, AFL-CIO, AFSCME and
SEIU are being invoked in bus barns around the country, and bus drivers in some states are striking alliances with bargaining units that are not necessarily household names in education.
38 School Transportation News Magazine June 2011
More Money, More Problems? Labor issues can obscure potential taxpayer benefits of contracted service
Te International Union of Painters & Allied Trades
(IUPAT) represents bus drivers in three Florida counties, including Marion County Schools, which is considering privatizing its transportation services. “They come looking for us,” says Steve Hall, an IUPAT
District Council 78 representative in Orlando. “Florida is a right-to-work state, and some other groups here are not as strong as they should be. We’re fortunate to have aggres- sive organizers who visit workplaces and talk to workers. In school districts, the bus drivers are the most active.” Privatization is not new, but recent budget problems have caused the practice to re-emerge as a hot button issue in
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60