Since August 2015, 17 school buses have caught fire or overheated to dangerous levels (sometimes with students inside). There are about 1,347 of S.C.’s 5,080 in-use and spare buses that need to be replaced ASAP and repairs for the old buses with harder-to-find parts are more costly than just replacing them.
So the S.C. Department of Education is requesting a $70 million increase in the 2018-19 budget + one-time funding for replacement of existing buses:
- A $5 million per year increase for bus purchases – totaling $10 million each year
- $8 million in one-time funding to fulfill the 2007 mandate to remove buses more than 15 years old from the bus fleet
- Up to $57 million in one-time funding to replace remaining older buses (some buses that were made in 1988 are still around…)
A proposal was made to spend $20.5 million from S.C. Lottery funds to replace buses, but Gov. McMaster vetoed it this past summer and instead wants the money to come from the state’s annual budget. State legislators decided not to override the veto at that time but will convene in Columbia in January 2018 + decide on whether or not to override the veto.
Read more from The State.
