Rep. Jim McCune, R-Graham, said today he is outraged by a last minute decision in the Senate Transportation Committee to kill a bill that would have guaranteed safety of school children being transported in school buses.

“All we’ve been hearing from the other side is that everything we are doing is family-friendly and for the children,” McCune said.  “But now we are going to keep school children at risk by letting them be transported by bus drivers who don’t even have valid driver’s licenses.”

McCune introduced HB 2373 making it easier for school districts to get current driver’s license information about their existing work force and potential new hires.  The House passed the bill unanimously last month.

“Parents deserve to know their children are being transported safely, and that every bus driver has a good record,” McCune said.  “I can’t believe the majority party doesn’t agree with that.”

School districts pay $5 to pull a copy of the school bus driver’s abstract, but that information is available only once a year.  McCune’s bill would have made driving records available to the schools free of charge and would have required the Department of Licensing to notify school districts when license’s are suspended or revoked.

“Under the existing system, the school district wouldn’t know a driver was convicted for DUI or reckless driving or some other major moving violation six months ago until some time next year,” McCune said.  “In the meantime, we’d be putting our kids at risk.”

The state employs 10,600 school bus drivers to transport 450,000 children.  Due to turnover, about 1,500 new drivers are hired annually.

“Most of the drivers are good drivers, but that isn’t good enough,” McCune said.  “The transportation committee has nearly $15 million set aside for safety programs, but the committee chair doesn’t think she has $60,000 per year to make school buses safer for our kids.

“If that isn’t a misplaced priority, I don’t know what is,” he said.  “It is completely reckless.”