School bus. (File photo: Getty Images)
Ohio public school districts continue to desperately look for bus drivers, while the state of school transportation as a whole is a topic of debate in both public and private schools.
A recent state-convened transportation task force recommended, among other things, a “comprehensive system change” in transportation with immediate actions to “mitigate current systemic challenges and build new system foundations.”
The task force’s shared goal was to “safely and consistently transport as many students as possible to and from the school of their choice – regardless of where they are enrolled,” according to a recent report.
However, the final recommendations clearly highlight the lack of agreement among working group members on how to achieve these goals.
In the state’s most recent operating budget, the Ohio Student Transportation Task Force was charged with “examining transportation issues,” including a look at the current system and a study culminating in recommendations regarding “the feasibility of each school district providing transportation to students enrolled in a local or nonpublic school on days when the school district is not open.”
The group agreed that school transportation and its financing is an issue that needs to be addressed, but acknowledged that even members of the working group “do not agree on all the major challenges.”
Members included representatives from private schools, religious schools, public schools, career centers and educational service centers, as well as two Ohio state senators and two members of the Ohio House, one from each political party in each chamber.
Three members of the task force noted that they “do not support the report with recommendations”: Shauna Murphy of Cincinnati Public Schools; Josh Biederstedt, Patrick Henry Local Schools; and state Sen. Catherine Ingram, D-Cincinnati.
“Family school choice” was noted in the report as a “valued principle in Ohio” that is “respected by all members of the task force.”
“However, not all stakeholders fully agree on the best way to ensure safe and reliable transportation between education systems for more students,” the report said. “Therefore, the recommendations identify where differences of opinion exist, while also seeking to inform decision-makers about real options for further action.”
“School choice” is a term often used by supporters of the employ of taxpayer-funded private school vouchers to allow students to transfer to nonpublic schools.
Religious education advocates supported the task force’s recommendations to make transportation available to more students.
The working group used data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, case studies and briefs submitted by members, and “panel discussions” with “transportation experts and leaders” among school districts and communities.
School district transportation as we know it today was established in state law beginning in 1966, when the law stated that time-honored school districts were to provide busing to districts and nonpublic charter schools.
Districts are required to transport these students unless otherwise approved “impractical for transport”, based on six different factors, in which case transportation compensation is paid to the family.
“The (payment in lieu of transportation) process is imperfect and for many families, payment does not solve the problem of daily transportation to school,” the working group report said.
“This is especially true for families experiencing poverty and those with inflexible work schedules.”
For the 2025–2026 school year, the task force found that more than 22,000 students were considered “transportation impractical” with all but 1,000 students attending municipal or licensed nonpublic schools.
The issue of impracticality made headlines in 2024 when former Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued Columbus City Schools for failing to provide transportation to private or charter school students. School district officials said they were following the law.
In May, the Ohio Supreme Court found that Yost lacked legal standing to compel the district to do so and that only 63 students were affected, citing facts presented by the former attorney general.
“The attorney general failed to demonstrate that a case involving a small number of students in one state school district affected the welfare of a ‘substantial portion’ of the state’s population,” the court said.
One of the recommendations made by the working group was to eliminate the impracticality clause over time as lawmakers worked to phase out a transportation payment system deemed impractical.
“In the new transport system (payment instead of transport) should be extremely rare or completely phased out,” the working group said.
There is a shortage of bus drivers
The report also noted a “persistent bus driver shortage” in the state, with data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce showing that, on average, only 14.68% of available school bus driver positions were filled in fiscal year 2025.
According to the state, 34 counties across the state had at least 10% of their open bus driving positions filled.
According to Jeff Wensing, head of the Ohio Education Association, part of the problem districts see in recruiting and retaining bus drivers is wages and job-related benefits, which are further exacerbated by the General Assembly’s decision to cut funding for the Fair School Funding Plan in the last operating budget.
“If you don’t fully fund schools, if you don’t make it attractive to be a bus driver, if you don’t make it possible to have enough buses to transport kids, you’re not going to make it work,” Wensing told the Capital Journal.
The current Columbus City School bus driver’s listing listed a salary of $23.56 per hour, a minimum of five years of driving experience, possession of a Class B commercial driver’s license and pre-employment driver training through the Ohio Department of Education and Labor.
In the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the job offer for a bus driver was $21.65 per hour and for a “driving trainee” it was $12.94 per hour.
Toledo Public Schools posted an hourly wage for bus drivers of $18.56 to $22.59, with an unspecified “annual longevity bonus” after five years.
While Wensing said the group’s recommendations are good ones without more money, more bus drivers and more school buses, he likened the plan to hosting 500 guests in a room that could seat 200 people.
“You can only imagine what kind of service you’re going to get if you overload a place like that,” Wensing said. “It’s similar with transport, you can’t pull a rabbit out of a hat.”
Among the recommendations pushed by the working group were bus driver recruitment strategies “with additional state support.”
The task force’s call to fund a portion of transportation in the education funding formula was praised by Melissa Cropper, who heads the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
But she said the group strongly disagrees with “the central premise of these recommendations – that the state is equally responsible for the transportation of private school students and that transportation funding should take the student to a private school that cannot be held accountable.”
“We should not commit any additional funding to private school students, including additional transportation funding, until we meet our promise to 90% of Ohio students attending public schools,” Cropper said in a statement to the Capital Journal.
While the General Assembly cut the amount allocated to the Fair School Financing Plan in the last operating budget, the state-funded school voucher program for private schools was allocated billions of dollars.
Advocates for religious private schools praised the task force’s implementation of the “school choice” principle contained in the report and recommendations.
“Ohio has made great strides in expanding school choice, but those options mean little if students can’t get into school,” said Troy McIntosh, director of the Christian Education Network, an arm of the religious lobbying group Center for Christian Virtue.
“We urge the General Assembly to follow these recommendations and ensure every eligible student has reliable transportation, regardless of the school they attend.”
The Ohio Catholic Conference also praised the task force’s findings. Deputy conference director Tom Rhatican was a member of the transportation working group.
“Parents’ choices about the best educational option for their child often become moot without the reliable transportation promised by Ohio law,” Brian Hickey, executive director of the conference, said in a statement.
It is unclear when or if the General Assembly might act on the recommendations. The legislature is currently on an extended summer recess until the November general election.
When lawmakers return, they have little time to act on priority legislation before the end of the General Assembly term. Any legislation not passed by the end of the year will have to be reintroduced in the modern General Assembly starting in 2027.
Requests for comment from Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman and Ohio Senate President Rob McColley were not returned.
