Ray Alvarez remembers the summer he couldnt make ends meet driving children to school.
I did qualify for food stamps, the Olathe school bus driver said. And yes, I accepted them. My income was so low.
Alvarez has driven buses off and on for a decade. The financial crisis back then upended his livelihood as a mortgage broker, he says.
He and other drivers urged a panel of state senators recently to consider letting them apply for unemployment during the 70 or so days each year when schools are closed for the summer. The bill stalled out in committee.
When Kansas school districts contract with private companies for janitors, food service workers, bus monitors and more, those employees can seek unemployment benefits if they cant find work during the off-season.
Bus drivers cant. Thats because of a decades-old carve-out in state law that state officials couldnt explain. The Kansas Department of Labor checked on 10 nearby states and found eight let privately employed school bus drivers apply for unemployment. Two dont.
Advocates of dropping the states carve-out argue it isnt fair nor helpful at a time when bus drivers are in short supply here and nationally, and jobless rates remain exceptionally low.
Mimi Horn has driven for the Lawrence school district for five years and says new employees who earn less and are less likely to snag a coveted summer school route struggle especially.
Even during the school year, many drivers can count on only a few hours of work each day, making it hard to cover rent, utilities or other bills.
Two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon. Drivers, Horn said, have to not pay something in order to pay the other. Rob Peter to pay Paul.
Could unemployment benefits help?
Starting pay for Lawrence bus drivers is $15 an hour. Pay at Horns level of experience is closer to $16. Raises top out after 13 years at $18.
Ive seen some of them, in the summertimes they go to the food banks. They have to rely on food stamps.
A Teamsters union representative said the company that Lawrence Public Schools contracts with, First Student, has repeatedly raised pay to entice more applicants.
The question is whether letting drivers apply for unemployment during the summer might help companies hire and retain them in Kansas. (The proposed change wouldnt affect drivers employed directly by public school districts, who still wouldnt qualify for reasons related to a federal law.)
