Lawmakers were frustrated today that the Department of Education can’t explain why competition among school bus contractors suddenly returned in bids for the coming school year.

After today’s legislative hearing, I tried to hail down Lee Gomes, president of the Hawaii School Bus Association and manager of Gomes School Bus Service.

“Lee,” I said to the woman sitting two rows behind me in the committee room, trying to make eye contact. She didn’t answer, so I tried a second time: “Lee.”

Gomes didn’t respond, but instead turned her back to me, shaking her head.

I was drawn into conversation with lawmakers for a few minutes, and when I finished the bus vendors were gone. Their lobbyist, John Radcliffe, walked toward me from the elevator, apparently having just seen them off.

“They’re not going to talk to you,” he said when I told him what happened with Gomes. “They’re pissed. Their lives are shattered by this bullshit.”

The Hawaii public school system’s school bus costs have more than doubled in the last six years. The Department of Education has kept up by cutting money from classrooms and making parents pay more for their kids to get to school.

Read more in our Taken For A Ride series.