Forget school-bus seat belts; just take better care of the drivers

The government has begun a campaign to get seat belts installed in school buses. Media have picked up on it, and are making it sound like a good idea.

I drove a school bus for several months, and I bet you can't find many school bus drivers who would agree with these bureaucrats. Most, like me, would be concerned about getting a bus load of kids unstrapped from their seats in case of an emergency.

In fact the National Education Association has mentioned this as a concern among its members. That, along with students swinging buckles as weapons and the near impossibility of ensuring that students wear the belts.

The NEA report accurately describes the incredible challenges we expect of school bus drivers:

"...bus drivers must care for up to 50-70 student charges at a time, while manuevering a large vehicle, contending with traffic, bad weather, and adverse road conditions. And do it all with their backs turned to the students!"

And now government bureaucrats would like drivers to be responsible for getting 50-70 students buckled into a bus and getting them unbuckled and out of the bus if there were an emergency, such as a fire?

Instead of fussing about seat belts, federal and state governments need to focus on the other conditions inside a school bus. If they did, they would 1) mandate that every school bus carry an assistant to the driver, and 2) school bus drivers would be paid at least as much as teachers.