Sickouts Reveal a Larger School Staff Shortage Issue

Orchestrated sickouts by Wake County bus drivers reveal larger issues with work conditions connected to staffing shortages. Source: Spectrum News

On Friday, October 29th, Wake County public schools saw 33% of bus routes without a driver, as many called in sick, forcing parents to scramble for a solution. The following Monday also saw  27% of routes lack drivers from reported sickness. While many workers have missed days this year due to illnesses, these incidents were different, as they were a part of an orchestrated “sickout” by Wake County bus drivers. 

The Wake County bus drivers intended this sickout to be a protest against what they consider to be unacceptable working conditions. While bus drivers have historically been paid relatively less, it was the long hours and additional routes caused by staffing shortages that pushed these workers over the edge. This staffing shortage has mainly been driven by frustration with inadequate pay, as bus drivers in North Carolina make, on average, $33,971 a year, putting them below the 25th percentile for drivers with a Class B CDL license, a specialty license required for all bus drivers. With more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, it is hard to attract and keep drivers. Furthermore, concerns about COVID have also contributed to the shortage, as those most vulnerable to the disease, people 65 and older, constitute about half of the bus drivers nationwide. Many of them, concerned with having contact with unvaccinated children, have retired or found new work. Finally, districts have struggled to replace these drivers, as bus drivers require the CDL mentioned above, which, if not possessed, can stall the hiring process for 12 weeks, repelling prospective applicants. This exodus of workers and the struggle to replace them has forced bus drivers who returned to work this year to pick up the slack. 

Despite this extra work and persistence in the face of the pandemic, however, Wake County bus drivers were only rewarded with a slight raise to $15 an hour for returning to work this year. This lack of rewards was unlike those seen in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system, which gave its drivers bonuses, lunches, and a raise to $16.50 an hour. Consequently, Wake County saw protests and staffing shortages, while the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system had no strikes and fewer issues with staffing.

This staffing shortage, however, is not only an issue with bus drivers. Although the state has yet to collect official numbers, news sources report that “school districts across the state were collectively advertising more than 10,000 vacancies on online job boards in the first week of November.” The US Department of Education has also reported that North Carolina is experiencing shortages in special education teachers across all grades, core subjects teachers at the elementary school level, and math teachers for middle and high schoolers. Unfortunately, these staffing shortages are not unique to North Carolina, as 77% of principals nationwide describe their staffing shortage as at least moderate.

It is the same factors that created the bus driver shortage — low pay, concerns with COVID, and a lack of qualified candidates — that are also engendering these other staffing shortages. Yet, somebody needs to teach the class, and drive the bus, and be the nurse, and this role has had to be filled by teachers, principals, and other administrators, all of whom already have jobs to do. This double-duty has meant a decline in the quality of jobs that are seminal to effective education. Teachers with extra duties have seen growing class sizes and disappearing planning periods, which is a time where they may prepare creative lessons. Hence, these additional duties do not permit teachers to give specialized attention to students, which allows them to thrive.

Now, if kids could halt their education for a few years and wait for the labor market to be corrected, these staffing shortages would not be an issue. But, that is not the case. Kids are only in school once, and these beginning years are formative in them becoming capable and functioning adults. In fact, the education that staffing shortages are robbing kids of is considered so fundamental that the North Carolina Constitution recognizes that "the people have a right to the privilege of education." So, on top of depriving kids of an invaluable experience, public officials are also stripping them of a state constitutional right by allowing this staffing shortage to continue.

Fortunately, state officials are in the process of correcting this injustice. Recently, Judge David Lee ruled in the Leandro case that the state must pay 1.7 billion dollars into the education system. Although the new state budget defied this order, it did spend hundreds of millions of dollars to guarantee that school support personnel will have a minimum wage of $15 by next fall, that teachers will see a raise of 5% over the next two years, and that staff will receive bonuses of at least $1,000. Furthermore, at the end of October, a vaccine against COVID was approved for children. Yet, while raising pay and vaccinating children strikes at the causes of the staffing shortage and sickouts, it is unlikely that they will be an immediate fix, as the purported 10,000 vacant jobs will probably take years to fill.