SOCASTEE, SC (WBTW) – Horry County School District says they are having to add six, old, county-owned school buses back onto the roads this school year, thanks to an outdated South Carolina law that makes it difficult to get new buses.
Horry County has had to buy new buses on their own for years to accommodate the rapid increase in student enrollment numbers. This year, they are expecting roughly 1,000 new students in their halls, which requires operating more buses.
Jim Wright, the Executive Director of Transportation for Horry County Schools says he has seen the reoccurring problem for years.
“There’s over 20,000 kids added to the enrollment in the state of South Carolina (this past year); well, bus wise, they’ve only added three buses,” Wright said.
The county has had to use taxpayer dollars to buy more buses in order to accommodate the schools’ increasing enrollment numbers.
“We’ve got 51 (buses) in our fleet right now. That’s an ongoing thing due to our growth. It’s very difficult to get a school bus from the state of South Carolina,” Wright said.
According to the district, many rules come along with state-owned buses. One particular law forbids the school bus from picking up and/or dropping off students who live within 1.5 miles from the school. Horry County says if it were not for several counties in the state buying their own buses, those students would have to walk to school.
“Is that the safest thing for our children in 2018?” Wright said. “We made that decision to purchase the buses to make sure that our children can be transported to and from school safely.”
Even though the school district will not have to purchase any new buses this year, the operations for the six additional buses they will have to add back into their fleet will still cost Horry County taxpayers millions of dollars, similar to years’ past. They will have to pay for bus driver salaries, insurance, additional fuel and repairs.
“That number is pretty high just here in Horry County to be able to provide the service that our children deserve,” Wright said.
According to the Horry County School District, South Carolina has 5,091 school buses to accommodate the 46 counties in the state. They say that number has fluctuated only slightly in the past 10 to 15 years.
