When school starts soon in South Carolina, more than 300,000 public school students will get there on school buses run by the state. South Carolina is the only state in the nation that runs a statewide school bus fleet. Gov. Mark Sanford thinks there’s probably a good reason the other 49 states don’t do it, and thinks the state should look into privatizing the system to save money.

The issue came up in his budget hearing with the state Department of Education. It’s asking for $65.7 million for bus equipment and driver salaries. Since 44 percent of the department’s staff is bus drivers, supervisors and mechanics, he thinks that’s an area that a business could take over and run less expensively.

One of the reasons the state needs so much for bus maintenance is the fact that more than 60 percent of the buses are more than ten years old. Private companies that run bus systems in other parts of the country, on the other hand, usually rotate buses out of circulation after 8 to 10 years.

News Channel 7 asked Elmer Whitten, deputy superintendent for finance and operations, whether the extra years of use and the need for more maintenance is a safety issue that parents should be concerned about? “It doesn’t become a safety issue when you stress safety,” he says. “Regardless of the age of the bus, the safety inspections, the maintenance of the bus is going to be the same as if it were a new bus. So we don’t jeopardize safety, and I don’t see safety as being an issue in running an older bus. If it’s an unsafe bus, we’ll take action to correct it.”

Results of privatization have been mixed. Santa Rose County in Northwest Florida expects privatization of its bus fleet to save the district $2 million over the life of the five-year contract. And the district’s transportation chief says the number of bus accidents has been reduced and bus maintenance has been improved.

On the other hand, a 1999 report on the privatization of Michigan’s bus system found that, “Private contractors have been beset by safety problems, many of which emanate from a lack of experience and from employing people at the low end of the wage scale.”

That’s one of the criticisms of privatization, that firms have to be the low bidder to win the contract, so they pay drivers less and therefore get worse drivers.

Gov. Sanford tells News Channel 7, “Safety is obviously going to remain at the top of everybody’s list from a quality of life perspective, particularly mine, and when you look at the pilot program down in Charleston what you find is that privatization has not had a negative impact on school bus safety.”

In Charleston, the state still provides and maintains the buses, but the district has contracted with a private firm to recruit and employ bus drivers.

Whitten thinks privatization would cost just as much or more in the long run. And since the state Department of Education is already asking for more money for the bus system, “The state’s got to be willing to fund it, one way or the other,” he says.