One of the reasons for the state owning the school buses and not the county school districts which is another South Carolina thing here in Ohio every city is it's own school district responsible for it's self, anyhow the state I guess in theory supposedly has better buying power and they thought if the state was in charge then they can throw there weight around and buy school buses better then each county school district can. Of course that's not really working out because the state of South Carolina wants to buy school buses like I want to buy new ball joints for my car (thank god I got a clean bill of health from the shop today).
They said in an article I read there was a county school district in 2015 that contracted it's school bus driving out to Durham School Services which in Ohio operates under the name of Petterman. Durham School Services is pretty much the Swift or USA Truck or JB Hunt etc etc of the School Bus business.
And let me stop right there, aint nobody going to drive a school bus and all it's liability for $12.00 an hour with no benefits. A decent Class B driver could get a box truck job that pays a few bucks more an hour and have half the liability and some fringe benefits, obviously there are some things wrong with this picture.
Now according to a Dec 2016 article 5,624 buses is the amount of buses the South Carolina Public Schools board of education operates. Now they said since 2007 or what ever the amount of students enrolled in public schools has increased by 40,000.
Now that would mean more routes and more buses because each bus can only do one route.
I don't know what the capacity is of a mid 1990s Thomas Pusher the reason it's called a "Pusher" is because the motor is in the back of the bus and pushes the bus. Here in Ohio there were some pushers, my school district had maybe 3 or 4 of them, but most of our transit style school buses had the motor in the front. My school district where I went to school was a big buyer in the 1990s of International Lonestar School buses flat nose or "transit style" with Wayne bodies. They did however have 2 Carpenters which the got rid of because Carpenter's had a defect in the welding where the roof caved in. Carpenter was a Michelle, Indiana company and I don't even think they are around any more.
Anyhow you figure 75 persons per bus, and each school district is different on this, some like to pack the buses full 3 to a seat others only 2 to a seat, but you figure 75 persons per bus that's about 534 new routes which would mean 534 new buses at $90,000 bucks a pop that's a cool $48,060,000 bill so all you South Carolina residents better get out and start playing your state school bus system needs you! The lottery they say all that money goes to help the schools. Well here in Ohio they gave up on that lie. They no longer say the Ohio Lottery helps the schools in fact I was watching Cash Explosion tonight and they no longer say "Money from the Lottery Year to Date or since Inception has gone to help the schools by X amount of dollars."
Actually in South Carolina they were going to use lottery money that was unclaimed to buy new school buses? Excuse me, but who wins lottery money and then doesn't claim it? Oh sure, I'm sure it's happened, but I can't believe there would be enough of that to replace an entire school bus fleet. Of course, that's the thing there isn't enough of that so they keep the same buses.
At any rate though certain counties in South Carolina have realized that big government has failed them and have taken things into there own hands. Counties with money have added to there bus fleets them selves buying there own buses getting there own maintenance people and making there own routes and subsidizing them selves. I guess not every county can do that because of monetary issues, but the ones that can have.
However, my favorite video on You Tube and it's a shame because the actual video it's self was taken down, but in 2008 The South Carolina Public Schools Department of Education paid money to have a school bus safety video made and in that video they blew up an out of service 1995 Thomas Pusher School bus. Anyhow they really did blow the school bus up they exploded the heck out of it.
Here is the behind the scenes making of that video:
I've actually seen the real film but it was pulled from You Tube.
Anyhow I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I had writing this and that everyone learned something I know I sure did!
Oh they said that the school bus they blew up the explosive force and explosive rigging was the same amount of explosives force that was used in the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. I guess the military and police rigged the bus with explosives at the Fort Jackson, Military Explosives training compound in South Carolina. I gotta give the state of South Carolina credit though they are the only state I know of that blew up one of there older out of service school buses.
Anyhow here is a media report if you like the news and there spin:
The one thing I don't get though is it's in the pre trip on any commercial vehicle exhaust leaks are a no no regardless of age of vehicle so I don't understand why that's a factor at all and in 1988 when some of those buses were brand new they didn't have any exhaust leaks, but in 2017 they can't have any exhaust leaks either so what's the big deal because if there's an exhaust problem it has to get fixed no matter what.
Anyhow I hope you all enjoyed this and learned something like I said I did.
They said in an article I read there was a county school district in 2015 that contracted it's school bus driving out to Durham School Services which in Ohio operates under the name of Petterman. Durham School Services is pretty much the Swift or USA Truck or JB Hunt etc etc of the School Bus business.
And let me stop right there, aint nobody going to drive a school bus and all it's liability for $12.00 an hour with no benefits. A decent Class B driver could get a box truck job that pays a few bucks more an hour and have half the liability and some fringe benefits, obviously there are some things wrong with this picture.
Now according to a Dec 2016 article 5,624 buses is the amount of buses the South Carolina Public Schools board of education operates. Now they said since 2007 or what ever the amount of students enrolled in public schools has increased by 40,000.
Now that would mean more routes and more buses because each bus can only do one route.
I don't know what the capacity is of a mid 1990s Thomas Pusher the reason it's called a "Pusher" is because the motor is in the back of the bus and pushes the bus. Here in Ohio there were some pushers, my school district had maybe 3 or 4 of them, but most of our transit style school buses had the motor in the front. My school district where I went to school was a big buyer in the 1990s of International Lonestar School buses flat nose or "transit style" with Wayne bodies. They did however have 2 Carpenters which the got rid of because Carpenter's had a defect in the welding where the roof caved in. Carpenter was a Michelle, Indiana company and I don't even think they are around any more.
Anyhow you figure 75 persons per bus, and each school district is different on this, some like to pack the buses full 3 to a seat others only 2 to a seat, but you figure 75 persons per bus that's about 534 new routes which would mean 534 new buses at $90,000 bucks a pop that's a cool $48,060,000 bill so all you South Carolina residents better get out and start playing your state school bus system needs you! The lottery they say all that money goes to help the schools. Well here in Ohio they gave up on that lie. They no longer say the Ohio Lottery helps the schools in fact I was watching Cash Explosion tonight and they no longer say "Money from the Lottery Year to Date or since Inception has gone to help the schools by X amount of dollars."
Actually in South Carolina they were going to use lottery money that was unclaimed to buy new school buses? Excuse me, but who wins lottery money and then doesn't claim it? Oh sure, I'm sure it's happened, but I can't believe there would be enough of that to replace an entire school bus fleet. Of course, that's the thing there isn't enough of that so they keep the same buses.
At any rate though certain counties in South Carolina have realized that big government has failed them and have taken things into there own hands. Counties with money have added to there bus fleets them selves buying there own buses getting there own maintenance people and making there own routes and subsidizing them selves. I guess not every county can do that because of monetary issues, but the ones that can have.
However, my favorite video on You Tube and it's a shame because the actual video it's self was taken down, but in 2008 The South Carolina Public Schools Department of Education paid money to have a school bus safety video made and in that video they blew up an out of service 1995 Thomas Pusher School bus. Anyhow they really did blow the school bus up they exploded the heck out of it.
Here is the behind the scenes making of that video:
Anyhow I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I had writing this and that everyone learned something I know I sure did!
Oh they said that the school bus they blew up the explosive force and explosive rigging was the same amount of explosives force that was used in the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. I guess the military and police rigged the bus with explosives at the Fort Jackson, Military Explosives training compound in South Carolina. I gotta give the state of South Carolina credit though they are the only state I know of that blew up one of there older out of service school buses.
Anyhow here is a media report if you like the news and there spin:
Anyhow I hope you all enjoyed this and learned something like I said I did.