For Hawaii’s Students, More Private School Buses
Hawaii depends more than any other state on private companies to bus students to and from school, using contractor-owned buses nearly four times as often as other states, according to a report from , the industry’s major trade publication.
On average, one-fourth of school buses in each state were owned by private contractors in the 2008-2009 school year, the most recent time period for which state by state data is available. In Hawaii, more than 98 percent of the school buses in operation are owned and run by private companies. And because of high infrastructure and capital costs, education department officials say, the situation is unlikely to change any time soon.
Of the 35 states that provided relevant busing data, five reported no private ownership of their school buses. New Hampshire came the closest to Hawaii with about 82 percent of its buses owned by contractors.
The busing of Hawaii students to and from school recently came under scrutiny by the Hawaii Legislature, which threatened to further cut the department’s transportation funding if it didn’t find a way to control costs.
Busing costs have nearly doubled in the past five years, due at least in part to a lack of competition among bus companies for the contracts.
The department spends about $70 million annually.
The estimated cost per student (excluding special education students) using the buses is about $1,100, largely paid for through general funds, according to Randy Moore, assistant superintendant of school facilities and support services.
Private Contracting System Blamed for High Costs
Direct cost comparisons across states is difficult because Hawaii is the only state with a statewide school district. Nonetheless, many local school districts throughout the U.S. do employ bus contractors 鈥 but none to the same extent as Hawaii.
Lawmakers here highlighted the contract system and its role in high busing costs as particular cause for concern in their 2011 .
Competition for bus contracts “is practically negligible,” legislators stated in the report. 鈥淥nce a company receives the contract for a route, other companies will not typically compete for that contract resulting with a situation whereby the State pays the only submitted bid price.鈥
The Legislature denied the education department nearly $20 million it had requested specifically to fund its contracts with 12 bus companies.
Hawaii鈥檚 DOE relies predominantly on 12 contractors 鈥 which range from small-scale companies to larger, multipurpose enterprises like 鈥 to transport both general and special-education public school students. The company is responsible for busing about half of its students, according to a separate survey by “School Fleet Magazine.”
By contrast, contractors on the mainland owned an average of less than 27 percent of all school buses used, while district and state governments owned an average of more than 73 percent.
Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky relied exclusively on publicly owned buses.
Maine, Washington and Iowa fell in the middle, with about 22 percent, 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively, of all school buses owned by contractors.
More Hawaii Public School Buses Unlikely
Hawaii has not bought more of its own school buses, Moore said, because infrastructure costs and planning 鈥 which both require significant capital 鈥 are a major barrier.
But he also says that, with the contractor system already well in place, transitioning to state-owned buses would take a long time and entail a lot of uncertainty.
“It’s not something we could do all of a sudden on day one because we have contracts that have five, four, three, two, one years to go,” said Moore. “If we wanted to significantly change our model, we would need to have the ability to do it over time, and the savings are unknown.”
| State | Public K-12 students transported daily | Total # school buses in operation | % buses that are contractor-owned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | 40,000 | 844 | 98.34% |
| New Hampshire | 136,541 | 2,663 | 81.9% |
| Alaska | n/a | 1,083 | 76.36% |
| Montana | 602,153 | 2,759 | 55.27% |
| Oregon | 270,728 | 4,493 | 49.5% |
| Nebraska | 77,885 | 3,304 | 34.14% |
| Maine | 160,984 | 2,742 | 22.39% |
| Washington | 486,078 | 10,105 | 12.98% |
| Iowa | 233,977 | 6,048 | 11.08% |
| Arizona | 361,306 | 8,096 | 0% |
| Nevada | 128,299 | 2,378 | 0% |
| Wyoming | 35,185 | 1,482 | 0% |
| National Averages (for 35 states for which all figures were available) |
491,021 | 8,714 | 26.72% |
Figures are from the 2008-2009 school year
Source: School Fleet Bus Magazine
Most busing contracts in Hawaii last for six years, and every year about 15 of them will end and come up for bid again. State departments like the education department are required to rely on a to select contractors for goods and services 鈥 in this case, public school transportation.
For each contract, then, the department hires 鈥渢he lowest responsible and responsive bidder whose bid meets the requirements and criteria set forth in the invitation for bids,鈥 as outlined in state statute. In other words, assuming all bidders are qualified bus companies, the DOE typically contracts the one that offers the cheapest bid.
But according to Moore, the department usually receives only one bid for each of the some 15 contracts proffered each year. And the companies that submit the bids, says Moore, are usually the same ones that held the contracts previously.
鈥淭here are two ways to look at it: Either there is a formal or informal agreement not to poach on each other’s property, or the other way to look at it is that there is a significant barrier to entry into this business,鈥 he told Civil Beat.
鈥擪atherine Poythress contributed to this story.
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