Wake School Buses Used for Lobbying

The Carolina Journal had an interesting piece last week while many (including my family) were on vacation. The article is about the improper use of Wake County School buses by the N.C. Association of School Administrators, of which former Wake Superintendent Bill McNeal is now executive director. Here's an excerpt, but be sure to read the whole article by clicking on the link above:

“Yellow buses can only be used for instructional purposes by the local school district,” Graham said, writing from a school transportation conference in Asheville. “Activity buses are for school activities, either instructional or not,” such as trips for athletic events— “[but] state law also allows them to be leased to non-profits for transporting school age children,” he said, referencing G.S. 66-58.
That statute says that state and local government will not provide transportation services in competition with private enterprise, except for the use of public school buses and activity buses for specified purposes, including nonprofits using them to transport schoolchildren to activities at their facilities. Other statutes stipulate that such use, even by emergency management teams or the National Guard, must be fully reimbursed to the local school board.