Those are worthwhile accomplishments, but they aren’t the mission. The mission is educational access. Efficiency should support that mission, but it should never become the mission itself. The future of education funding is becoming increas-
ingly uncertain, and transportation funding sits squarely in the middle of that uncertainty. Many state funding formu- las continue to rely on student enrollment at precisely the moment enrollment is declining. Public schools are also serving an educational landscape, where more families are choosing charter schools, private schools, homeschool- ing and other educational pathways. These realities place increasing pressure on district budgets, while transporta- tion funding rarely changes in ways that acknowledge the additional complexity required to support them. Which brings me back to what I think is the funda-
mental point. None of those educational models work if students cannot get there. And expanding opportunity is only meaningful if students can actually access it. Trans- portation is not competing with educational opportunity. It is what makes educational opportunity possible.
A Different Way to Think About Success If we’re going to rethink how transportation communi-
cates its value, then I think we also need to rethink what we mean by capacity and capability. And before anyone assumes I’m talking about seating capacity, I’m not. Capacity is our ability to respond to the question,
“How are we going to get all these students where they need to be?” It includes buses, funding, technology, per- sonnel, time, partnerships and every other resource that allows us to build and sustain a transportation system. It is our organizational capacity to do the work. Capability is something different. It is our ability to use those resources well. It’s the knowledge, experience, creativity and professionalism transportation teams bring to solving increasingly complicated problems. Those two ideas are important because they change the conversation. Imagine someone asks, “How many additional students
could we transport to more schools with only a modest increase in resources?” In an organization focused almost exclusively on efficiency, the answer often becomes “Very few.” Not because it can’t be done but because additional demand is viewed primarily as additional cost. A capacity/capability-focused organization tends to
answer differently: “It depends.” How many more students could gain access to ed-
ucational opportunities? What would the incremental investment be? How can we maximize access while re- sponsibly managing additional resources? Those aren’t simply different answers. They’re different philosophies.
What We Measure Says More About Us Than Anyone Else This is the uncomfortable part. If this conversation is
going to change, I think we have to acknowledge that our own profession bears some responsibility for where we are today. For years, we’ve proudly told stories about accomplishing more with fewer resources. Every time we solved a problem no one heard about...
Every time we absorbed another challenge without asking for additional support... Every time we found another efficiency… we reinforced a narrative that transportation’s greatest value was its ability to cost less. We wanted to demonstrate professionalism, innovation, stewardship and responsibility. Instead, we may have unintentionally taught deci-
sion-makers that transportation would always find a way to absorb the next challenge. If the only story we tell is how little we need, we shouldn’t be surprised when peo- ple conclude we need very little.
From Here to Where? I’m not suggesting efficiency no longer matters. It
absolutely does. Public resources deserve thoughtful stewardship, and transportation professionals have earned a reputation for delivering exactly that. But effi- ciency cannot remain our highest calling. The educational environment is changing too quick-
ly. Transportation is becoming more central to how students access learning, not less. As districts adapt to changing demographics, expanded educational choice, and increasingly specialized programming, trans- portation becomes one of the few services capable of connecting students to those opportunities. That changes the conversation. At least it should. It also means transportation leaders may have to
become less comfortable with the quiet professionalism that has long defined our work. We’ve often preferred to let that work speak for itself. Operationally, that’s admira- ble. Strategically, it may no longer be enough. Transportation leaders need to become better advo-
cates, and not for bigger budgets simply because we want them, but for investments that match the educa- tional outcomes our communities expect. If we continue defining our value by how little transportation costs, others will continue seeing trans- portation as something worth spending less on. But if we begin defining our value by the educational
opportunities transportation makes possible, perhaps we can finally start having the conversation our profession and our students deserve. ●
Tim Ammon is the owner of Ammon Consulting Group and has 25 years of experience focused on routing efficiency and effectiveness as well as operational performance for school districts nationwide. He is a frequent speaker at STN EXPO conferences and an expert commentator for School Transportation News.
www.stnonline.com 27
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