Privatization is an option

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school bus fleet shouldn't

overshadow historic underfunding.

South Carolina's aging school bus fleet has long been a problem that state lawmakers preferred to ignore. Lawmakers have never adequately funded the bus fleet nor have they taken meaningful steps toward large-scale reform, such as turning over the management of the fleet to a private company.

Recently, however, the Legislature appointed a committee of state, business and nonprofit leaders to study whether the management of the bus fleet should be privatized. The committee will deliver its report to the Legislature in January.

Certainly privatization is an option worth exploring. The hope, of course, is that a private company can save the state millions of dollars, which could then be used for purchasing new and better buses. But quality of service should not be sacrificed for the sake of saving money.

State Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, a member of the committee, pledged that any private company would be held to tough standards: "At the end of the day, we'll see if we can contract out (bus services) for the same amount or less money and get better service."

That's a high bar for any private company to meet, but it should be non-negotiable. Privatization has its enthusiastic proponents — particularly those who believe that public entities most often can't do anything efficiently — but the state shouldn't privatize school bus management merely for the sake of privatizing.

The privatization study also should not be allowed to distract attention from lawmakers' responsibility to adequately fund buses. Right now, the state's 5,600-bus fleet is in serious disrepair. Almost half of the buses need to be replaced. More than 2,600 buses are more than 15 years old or have been driven more than 250,000 miles.

Not unexpectedly, breakdowns are more frequent than ever. An average of 22 buses fail on the way to school every day in South Carolina. Sometimes hundreds of kids are late for school or stranded by the roadside for hours. Clearly that deprives children of valuable class time. Nor is it good for the safety of young people.

The average age and mileage of the bus fleet continue to increase because lawmakers have been too slow to replace buses. New buses, however, not only are more reliable but also have superior safety features.

A huge problem is that lawmakers often buy buses intermittently, rather than setting aside some funds every year to replace buses on a timely basis. Even in the prosperous years of the late 1990s, lawmakers failed to adequately fund bus purchases, and now they face an even greater challenge in a still-sluggish South Carolina economy. The state should replace about 375 buses each year. In 2002, the state replaced 209 buses, and in 2003 it replaced only 36.

A creative solution such as privatization could help revitalize the state's school bus fleet. But that option must guarantee that bus service will be safe, efficient and cost-effective.