NEW YORK – A standoff between striking school bus drivers and aides looking for job protections and a city administration that says they just can’t have it has the potential to go on for some time.

Parents are scrambling for a second day to figure out alternatives so tens of thousands of students can get to school on Thursday.

Michael Cordiello of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union says the drivers will strike until Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city agree to put a job security clause back into their contract.

But Bloomberg says the strike “is about job guarantees that the union just can’t have.”

Observers on both sides of the issue say absent an injunction, the strike could last a while.