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Ask Matt ... Why is bus ridership down, and drug ads up?

Shelley Brown, director of transportation for Henderson County schools, stands in front of a new 72-passenger bus, which cost $166,000.

By MATT MATTESON, Published: October 29, 2025

Q. I read that a national survey found that for the first time ever, the number of car riders surpassed the number of kids riding a school bus. Where do we stand?

We are no different. A ridership count was recently taken for all 23 Henderson County public schools.

“We currently have a total of 4,344 bus riders, which is 35 percent of our student population,” said Shelley Brown, the school system’s director of transportation. Brown had predicted this drop from previous years due to Hurricane Helene plus an ongoing decline statewide.

So where are the bus riders? Online research offered that many stopped riding due to convenience. Why put your kid on a bus for an hour when you can drive them in 15 minutes? Also, there is a perceived safety factor although statistics show that riding a bus is vastly safer than in a car or walking. Remember, many high schoolers drive themselves and others to school.

OK, so if fewer kids are riding buses to school, are car rider lines at our elementary and middle schools getting longer? Not really, because Henderson County school enrollment is declining. This is true across the state. Kim Arrowood, HCPS’s public information officer, offered some reasons, including Covid 19 and the loss of students to home schools, private schools and charter schools. Also, the rising cost of raising a family may be a factor in smaller birth cohorts.

Cost is a factor in the school bus business, too, but money is not a cause for the decline in ridership. Our school district operates 111 yellow buses and 30 activity buses at a cost per mile of $6.17. This exceeds the state average by $1.18. Compared to all the 115 North Carolina public school systems, our mountain roads are not affecting cost as much as how compact each school district is.

Each school system gets an allowance for bus maintenance and for buying new ones. The last 72-passenger bus HCPS acquired cost $166,345. Those buses, which now come with seat belts, are made by the Thomas Bus Co. in High Point, a Daimler Truck North America subsidiary that makes about a third of the school buses sold in the U.S.

Q. Are we seeing so more drug ads on television now than before?

Yup! From online sources, Big Pharma has invested $3.73 billion in national TV advertising since January. That’s about 14 percent of all television advertising. And it seems that ads are getting more creative with awesome dancing (Jardiance), beautiful unblemished bodies (Skyrizi) and ads playing hit songs like Dancing in the Moonlight (Vabysmo).

I conducted an armchair (OK, lazy-boy) study in August and found more than thirty drug ads, not counting over-the-counter drugs. You know them —  for the heart, eyes, blood, skin, lungs, muscles and brains or conditions ranging from cancer to depression. Wegovy, the hot new weight loss drug, is the most advertised. There is no shortage of Prevagen ads. This OTC product touts improved “brain health.” Highly questionable.

I toted my list of ads down to Economy Drugs and presented it to pharmacist Jack Romer and asked if it was really worth it for drug companies to advertise as they do.

“The numbers are there,” said Romer. “We don’t sell all those drugs but there are many who go to their doctors and they do ask.” Romer cited the convenience factor. “A lot of people like the weight loss drugs because it just takes a pill,” he said. Romer gave me a short history of drug advertising. “In the old days drug company reps could walk into a doctor’s or pharmacist’s office to promote their products,” he said.  “That’s all changed.”

The FDA’s gradual relaxation of drug ads began in 1997.

“The ads now have to state side effects which, for many, went right over their heads,” he said.

It is no wonder that with some 20,000 approved drugs, all the “easy names” have been taken. Drug companies struggle to invent new names. Ultimately drug names must be approved by the World Health Organization. Tylenol was approved in 1955.  Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) has been around since 1899.

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