The Iran War is adding fuel to the school bus crisis

What they're saying: "We're a non-instructional expense for a district," Peter Mannella of the National Association for Pupil Transportation tells Axios.

• "The inclination is always going to be let's see what we can cut out of transportation costs because we don't want to affect the school library," he says, adding that districts would rather protect spending on teachers, aides, and special education.

The big picture: Districts are consolidating routes, cutting trips and squeezing more efficiency out of their fleets.

• A May survey of 188 school officials found 40% had adjusted routes, 27% enforced anti-idling rules, 25% cut routes, 20% limited optional trips, 14% changed fuel purchasing and 8% made students walk farther to stops.
• Mannella said those changes result in more parents driving students to school activities or districts moving pickup points farther from students' homes.
• "It starts to affect kids and families, which you know you'd rather not do," he said.

Case in point: Cherry Creek Public Schools outside Denver is short about 40 drivers, transportation director Mark Ingram tells Axios.

• "It's an all hands on deck thing," he said. "Every morning and afternoon, we're looking at running some routes 10 to 15 minutes late … we just don't have the people to cover the routes."
• For some students, that can mean missing the school-provided breakfast or arriving late to first period, he said.

Ingram's district has about 611 vehicles, including 320 yellow buses, plus vehicles for students with special needs and other district operations.

• The district budgeted $1.5 million for fuel this year, up $300,000.
• It now expects to spend roughly $2 million to $2.3 million. Ingram said the district hasn't cut services but is being frugal.

Zoom in: The driver shortage isn't just about wages.

• Nick Martini, a former school bus driver who is now an executive at a Minneapolis-area school bus contractor, said drivers must simultaneously manage children and traffic while meeting extensive training, licensing and safety requirements.
• Split shifts can keep drivers tied up for 10 to 12 hours while paying for only a fraction of that time, and districts compete with delivery and logistics companies for the same workers with commercial-driver's licenses.

Between the lines: Rural districts have even fewer escape routes.

• Whereas kids in urban and suburban areas can sometimes walk to school, rural children may live miles from school, requiring longer bus routes, while districts struggle to match private-sector driver pay or hire third-party operators.
• Special-needs transportation can be similarly expensive because curb-to-curb routes may have long gaps between stops.

Flashback: The Biden administration offered federal funding to electrify school bus fleets, but some of those programs have since slowed or ended, Association of School Business Officials International's Elleka Yost tells Axios.

• Electric buses aren't an immediate fix everywhere. Yost pointed to narrow or winding roads, small bridges, extreme temperatures and a lack of trained technicians.

The bottom line: Districts will keep adapting, Mannella said.

• "We are inherently problem solvers," he said. "Transportation is too important to just let us say, 'Well, we're not going to be able to do that anymore.' We'll find a way."

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