Can you make this out? It's a shot of a school bus with 28 students on board, hit and upended in Ohio. Watching the bus video of this accident is pretty violent as students are knocked out of their seats and upended against the sides and roof of the bus. Fortunately this time, there were only minor injuries for the students and driver.
Only 6 states in the United States mandate seat belts for school buses: California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas. There are 32 states and Puerto Rico who have been considering it since 2007 and 12 that act like they don't care.
However, if you try the 'no seat belt' thing in your car, you will get a ticket, no questions asked. In fact, seat belts are required in most every vehicle on the road... except school buses. Why? Seat belts save lives.
According to the American School Bus Council, "Every year, hundreds of thousands of school buses transport more than 25 million children to and from school. That number represents about 50 percent of the K-12 population."
"School buses travel approximately 5.7 billion miles annually and are designed to be safer than passenger vehicles in avoiding crashes and preventing injury. In fact, school buses are the safest mode of transportation for children to get to and from school. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on average only six student passengers die in school bus crashes each year, compared to approximately 2,000 children who are killed in motor vehicle crashes annually."
Yes, school buses are designed for safety. They are bigger, taller vehicles than most other non-truck vehicles. But those comparisons are far from 'apples to apples There are more cars on the road by far, driven more miles, often by less skilled drivers on all kinds of roads and highways, 24/7. The typical school year is about 200 days compared to 365 total days of the year, And the comparison contrasts only half of that bus-riding population vs. the total number of school age children.
And while even one death is a tragedy, the bus number, lower than I would have guessed, relates only to deaths, not a plethora (use that word in a sentence and get a prize) of other possible injuries such as broken bones, chipped or knocked-out teeth, whiplash, concussions, etc.
It's all about money and priorities. Seat belts do make school buses more costly, even to modify, with a need to justify 'the why' to local funding agencies and taxpayers. Less deaths is a biased justification.
Now comes my rant: I guess I'm just upset in general as to how we treat our teachers and students, their education, their school lives and safety needs that are our responsibility. Few professions are as vital as teaching, no group more critical for it's needs than our students--our tomorrow. Our world is betting on this
In my state, North Carolina is ranked 39th in the Unites States in teacher pay, averaging $53,600. North Carolina's republican heavy congress proposed a 3.5 percent increase over two years. The democratic governor wants 9.1 percent over two years--both figures without a tax increase. We still do not have a current budget and are at an impasse. Meanwhile, the teachers--80 percent of them from counties that are below the state average--are restlessly, caught in political limbo and desperately waiting. The legislators' proposal includes nothing for teacher supplies, which are expected. The Governor's budget includes such funds additionally to the teachers' salary.
North Carolina mandates a balanced budget. It accepts no federal medical aid assistance for the Affordable Care Act. Both budget proposal meet state budget constraints. Yet, we can't seem to want to spend money for teachers and education, or accept Federal insurance aid these struggling just to get by.
Gladly, they don't make foam figures shouting "We're # 39th!"
Where would we get that many fingers?
So how are we doing as a country? The latest finding from the Pew Research Center have the U.S. in 38th place out of 71 countries when it comes to math scores and 24th place when it comes to science.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of that study is just how far the we have fallen in the international rankings. In 1990, the we were sixth in the world for its levels of education-- 21 spots ahead of where we are now.
Teachers need to be paid in step with their value to the education of our young people... and those students need an environment to learn that takes into account concerns, resources and opportunities.
Educators are not million dollar pro athletes... they are better than that. Educators should be our heroes... because they are. We just act like we don't believe it.
So that's my rambling rant for today. Tomorrow, laughs and candy, I promise.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment