I physically cringed when I read this. I think this entire issue is one that must be handled with kid gloves.

Personally, I see a danger in trying to recruit one race over another for any reason -- we should all be focused on hiring the best qualified, safest personnel possible regardless of their heritage.

I'm not sure the road of 'diversity' is a road on which our industry should travel. Instead, let's remain focused on the person's qualifications, safety record and abilities.

Certainly I think it matters. I also believe that you are correct when you say that school transportation employees reflect the communities they serve in with regard to ethinicity. We have a 60% hispanic population in our district and that generally fits the percentage of our hispanic drivers. We transport a fair amount of english language learners which makes it even more important for our drivers to be able to communicate with our students. I believe that would be the case in most districts in Ca. In summary, workforce diversity is not an issue here and I suspect it is not an issue in general terms in our industry.

First, I hate this "diversity" game. If you're in the US, and a citizen, you are an American. Your not Hispanic, Sweedish, Italian, etc. You are an American. And thus, you hire any American who comes in for the job and is qualified. And why do we need a special driver to speak another language? In the United States we speak English. And if you don't, you should. Our fore fathers knew, when they stepped on these great shores, they had to speak English. So if these passengers cannot respect our country and speak our language, why do WE need to set up special accomodations? THEY do!

I agree with the comment Brian Whitta left:
The industry should concern itself mainly with "hiring the best qualified, safest personnel possible regardless of their heritage."
However, it is a definite plus if personnel can communicate with their passengers. A voluntary program of learning Spanish might encourage those otherwise qualifed drivers to apply for jobs in an area where that language is spoken by many customers.
What about a concerted effort to bring English lessons to those qualifed drivers who are at home in their native language and who may feel uncomfortable applying for a job in the mainstream?
Until more bi-lingual applicants are found, these loger term solutions may merit some attention.

Workforce diversity has been an issue for many years. By being diverse one wears more than one hat or has more than one ability or talent. Being able to communicate in a different manner than the norm is important but finding individuals with such skills that are willing to work for school bus drivers wages or time frame can be difficult. Our small district has been fortunate to have two pastors from local churchs which are bi-lingual. We also have one or two others with the same abilities. Having any workforce individual that has these abilities and skills is very helpful. Our district posts job openings for teachers that have bi-lingual skills so why wouldn't we want bi-lingual drivers too? Yes, workforce diversity is an issue but it is one that cannot easily be resolved without higher wages offered.

To speak English press 1, to Speak Spanish press 2, Vietnamese press 3. Welcome to California where it's the land of diversity. There is room on the boat for all. Heck.. my Irish Heritage before becoming American rode the boat. There is a job for everyone.. If they can do it well.

Our community is becoming more diverse and I think it is an issue, but not limited to language. You don't necessarily have to have a driver, but you do need someone to bring awareness and understanding to all workers. The benefit of having a diverse group of people as resources can help drivers understand cultural issues that affect how individuals respond when they try to communicate, i.e., a student won't look you in the eye or parents are afraid of any bus stops that require children to walk by dogs. Both are cultural issues that were taught to us by non-drivers.

Our school district employees quite a few Hispanic drivers. I believe it is not so much a matter of recruiting them, but that there are Hispanic people among the local population, they are interested in the job, meet the qualifications, and thus are hired. Some do not speak English too well, which makes for difficult communications at times, especially on the radio. But they get the job done and are dependable employees. To the best of my knowledge, every student we transport speaks fluent English, negating the need for bilingual drivers. We have many Hispanic students, but they all speak good English. I can see that this might more of a concern for a public transit operation than school transportation. I agree with many of the others commenting here: If the person is capable of doing the job, they should be hired, regardless of ethnic background. This appears to be the situation with the drivers of our school district. Most of our drivers are Caucasian, reflecting the majority of the population in this area. However, we do have many Hispanic and African American drivers as well. Everyone gets the job done.

Geoff Bridgman, Driver
Pocono Mountain School District West
Mount Pocono, PA

In my view, diversity is another way of saying discrimination. When you are trying to be diverse you are in effect discriminating against those who may be as or more qualified. The best qualified person should get the job.

It's tough enough to get good qualified and safe drivers let alone worry about ethnicity. Let's just find good drivers and forget the other stuff.

My first thought on this issue is if I were a transportation supervisor I would want to fill a route with a trained and licensed driver - my thought would be to 'get the job done.'
I have seen job postings for school bus drivers for our county's school districts as well as private companies advertised in our local newspapers that reach all of the surrounding towns which are richly diversified. None the less, our district remains primarily of one race - and it is from this work background that forms my opinions.
To me, there is two separate thoughts or ways to think about this: The first being behavioral expectations of the children riding the bus, and secondly, a genuine special need that may require a driver with a special qualification on a particular bus run such as a non-English speaking student or a student who is deaf.
As bus drivers we expect (and demand) appropriate behavior of all students riding the bus regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, etc. - and regardless of mine as well; my race or ethnic background should not be a reason why a child behaved as she did, good or bad. With well defined rules of good and bad student behavior created and adopted by the board administration and enforced by the transportaton supervisor, the schools' principals, the administrators, and other effected officials, I have the support I need to do my job.
I do believe students having special needs may require more from a driver such as speaking a second language. I am not aware of any such need in my district, but there are times when I have driven or assisted a special need autistic student who used sign language to communicate. It became increasingly aware to me that I needed to know some basic signs, such as 'I hurt'; 'bathroom'; even 'thank you' and 'please'.
I do not believe one or two students should require a new hire with special skills; but, providing the effected drivers and bus aides with additional training would be the answer in such a case.

I've worked for two school districts in Tucson, Arizona for the last 28 years (Tucson Unified and Vail Unified) and in both cases, diversity was never an issue as we always got enough recruits from all ethnic backgrounds in the local area (Anglo, hispanic, black, Native American, oriental, other.)

We never had to target certain groups. Someone told me Tucson is one of the nation's most integrated towns. I haven't lived a lot of other places, but by casual observation it seems to be true.

It's been my experience during my 40+ years in our industry that the local workforce who drive our school buses usually reflects the ethnic make-up of the local community they serve. School bus drivers are nearly always drawn from the local community, since the job is mostly part-time work, and it is difficult to recruit employees who need to commute very far to come to work. There are exceptions, but I believe that in most cases, the workforce is as diverse as the community being served. I agree with the commentors who stated that our goal should be to hire the safest and best qualified applicants, regardless of their ethnicity.

Head Start buses are all required to have a monitor on board. All of our monitors are Spanish speaking. I'm not sure why that is, but it is very helpful, as most of the parents of our children, speak very little English. We have had people from "other" places, show interest in a bus driving job. The problem is, that it is very hard to find a qualified driving instructor, that speaks the language. I have noticed with the monitors, very often, they "pretend" they understand, but they really don't. Can you imagine how hard it would be to try to teach someone to drive a bus?

L'VE BEEN IN TRANSPORTAION 34 YEARS AND WHEN IT CAMES TO HIREING SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS TOP QUALIFIED ONLY. IF WE DID HIRER SPANISH SPEAKING DRIVERS TO HANDLE SPANISH SPEAKING KIDS HOW DO DISPATCHERS,DRIVER TRAINER,AND OTHER OFFICE EMPLOYEES TALK TO THEM. ARE THESE JOB FILLED WITH OTHER PEOPLE WHO CAN SPEAK SPANISH OR ARE THEY MADE TO LEAN SPANISH ?

I too believe in looking for drivers with safety and good qualifications in mind.

When my familiy imigrated in the 1900's we did not have anyone teaching us english in schools. We learned by listening and having english speakers helping us. When we were in public we "respected" the english speakers by speaking english. In private in our homes we spoke our native language.

From my experience as a driver (11 years) the spanish speaking community is the only ethnic group that we have bent over backwards to accomodate with ESL classes, etc. They should have to learn just like my relatives and millions of others did.

So hiring spanish speaking drivers is defeating the learning of english by non-english speaking students.

A driver should be able to speak our language well, not the other way around.

First of all I am Hispanic, but also an American citizen (people from Puerto Rico have the American citizenship)

If I want to go to the US and work as a SCHOOL BUS DRIVER I will learn how to speak, write and read ENGLISH. I am very good with ENGLISH and have no problems with it.

Why adjust because of those who do not speak english ?

Is it really hard for them to learn english ?

Better hire the qualified people for the job.

Learn english and oportunities will follow you.