Like a lot of part-time school bus drivers in Georgia, Ales Campbell took the job mainly for the health insurance benefits.
“That’s why I’m doing it,” said Campbell, who travels 122 miles a day transporting K-12 students for Walker County Schools on a rural route near the community of Villanow.
Campbell saw the cost of her family’s health insurance drop from roughly $900 a month before she started driving a bus six years ago to $269 a month now through the State Health Benefits Plan.
So Campbell is one of many part-time Georgia school employees opposed to Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposal to take away, starting Jan. 1, 2016, the health insurance benefits of 10,500 school bus drivers, cafeteria employees and other non-certified employees who work less than 30 hours a week. When their family members are included, some 22,000 people could lose coverage.
Kevin Richardson looks through signed petitions while at the Walker County School bus yard in Chickamauga, Ga., on Thursday, February 19, 2015. Richardson spoke about his concern with Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s proposed budget cuts which would end health care benefits for drivers working under 30 hours a week. “If bus drivers don’t roll, then the children can’t come to school,” said Campbell. She wouldn’t lose her health insurance because she works 35 hours a week, but is upset because 44 of Walker County’s 89 bus drivers would lose theirs. “It’s a shock to me that it was even considered.”