Charges of racism and Orwellian tactics are flying as the Boston School Bus Drivers' Union fights a resolution passed by the city council that urges the public school system to install global positioning system (GPS) devices in its entire fleet of school buses as a safety and efficiency strategy.

Referring to the GPS systems as "contentious spy devices," the drivers' union maintains the devices' real purpose will be to track the city's bus drivers and further advance their portrayal as speeders and scofflaws.

Union President Steve Gillis added that the proposal is an attempt to tear apart the private collective bargaining agreement reached in October between the union and the school-bus-management firm First Student Inc.

"The GPS systems are being posed in Boston by city councilors who have for the last year been trying to do away with school buses and move back to local schools," Gillis said. At a Nov. 18 press conference, school bus drivers reportedly called several city council members "racists" and "segregationists" because the city's school-bus system was first adopted to transport minority students to predominantly white schools.

If the city council is really concerned about safety, Gillis told eSchool News in a telephone interview, it should use the money to hire human monitors who can stop fights and make sure students get off at the correct stop. Currently, the city has about 100 human monitors who help on buses with special-needs students. "A global positioning system won't ever deal with a safety problem on a bus, but a human can," Gillis said.

The city also could use the money proposed for the GPS systems to fix the city's aging bus fleet, Gillis said. The city has 720 buses, and between 60 and 70 break down each day, he said.

"I don't know if [the human-monitor alternative] does the trick. The [human] monitors are for on-board safety," said Councilor John M. Tobin Jr., who in September introduced the idea of installing GPS devices in Boston school buses.

Tobin said it would cost $200,000 to $300,000 per year to outfit and maintain Boston's school buses with GPS service. The city currently spends $60 million each year on student transportation.

He lauded the plan as a way to track and document the time, speed, and direction of buses to improve customer service and reduce complaints from parents. The devices also would be wired into the buses' on-board computers so they could report mechanical problems directly to headquarters, he said.

The idea "goes back to earlier this year, in the spring, [when] the Boston Public Schools' athletic director came to us and said there is a high number of buses that simply are not picking up students for athletic practice," Tobin told eSchool News, adding that "in the fall, we had three parents call and say they couldn't find their kids."

The city council held a hearing Nov. 8 to explore the accountability, efficiency, and safety benefits of installing GPS systems in the city's school-bus fleet. Tobin said the evening was overshadowed by the union leader's claims of racism and Big Brother.