The electric school bus revolution has begun — here’s how we keep it going

As the U.S. government rolls out an array of climate measures included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), electric school buses have emerged as one of the low-hanging fruits. They can immediately improve health for children and communities, while expediting the broader transition to electric vehicles — a crucial step in preventing the worst impacts of climate change. That’s why it is great news that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just announced nearly $1 billion in rebate awards to 389 school districts. A full 95 percent of the buses funded will be electric school buses. Now, every state is part of the electric school bus revolution, alongside Washington, D.C., territories and tribal nations.

Currently, most American school buses run on diesel, which not only contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, but also spews damaging pollutants into the air that disproportionately impact disadvantaged populations. Because Black and low-income students and children with disabilities rely on school buses more than others, they are more likely to be exposed to harmful pollutants. These disproportionate impacts are in addition to underlying conditions in which communities of color face fine particulate matter pollution from vehicles that is 61 percent to 75 percent higher than for white residents.

Electric school buses offer the best opportunity to address historic inequities and are the only school bus option with zero tailpipe emissions. This reduces student exposure to harmful pollutants like nitrogen oxides, which contribute to respiratory and heart disease. Even when accounting for the upstream emissions of electricity production, electric school buses today produce fewer greenhouse gases than any other type of school bus. And in contrast to fossil fuel buses, the entire electric school bus fleet will get cleaner each year as more wind and solar are added to our electricity system.

School districts are clearly ready to leave fossil fuels behind and realize the climate and health benefits of electric school buses. In its first round of funding, the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program received $4 billion in rebate requests — eight times the $500 million initially proposed by the EPA. The electric school buses funded through this program continue a growth trajectory that began with two buses in 2014; as of June, 767 electric school buses are delivered or in operation — about the size of Hawaii’s entire school bus fleet — with many more on the way thanks to this first round of funding for the $5 billion program.  

Despite this progress, fewer than 1 percent of the 480,000 school buses on the road today are electric. So how do we keep the momentum going to ensure this transition really takes off?

First, manufacturers must rapidly scale up production, which will help lower costs and make electric school buses accessible for all communities. They must catch up to the light-duty sector and set EV transition targets such as GM’s commitment to have a fully electric fleet of vehicles by 2035. And they must expand upon existing workforce development strategies for job creation and training to ensure an equitable transition for the workforce. The cleaner school bus investments in the IIJA alone could create an estimate 46,000 job-years. Let’s have those jobs prioritized for communities that have been historically disadvantaged.

Second, states must set target dates to transition their full bus fleets to electric and ensure these buses first reach the communities that need them the most. Several states are already paving the way; for example, New York, home to 10 percent of the nation’s school bus fleet, has pledged to make all new school bus purchases electric by 2027, and transition the full fleet by 2035. Already several other states — Connecticut, Maryland and Maine — have followed suit with similar provisions. States should also prioritize and dedicate funding to support disadvantaged communities: Earlier this year Colorado created a $65-million grant program for electric school buses that prioritized underserved school districts, and New Jersey’s three-year $45 million school bus electrification grant program designates at least half of its annual funding for low-income, urban or environmental justice communities.

Third, Congress should keep and expand upon its commitment to school bus electrification. The IRA included multiple such provisions, including: $1 billion to electrify certain medium and heavy-duty vehicles, with 40 percent of that funding for air quality non-attainment areas; up to $40,000 per vehicle in a qualified Commercial Clean Vehicle Tax Credit, including a direct-pay provision which enables tax-exempt entities like school districts to access the credit; and additional tax credits for electric vehicle charging. Future legislation, such as the 2023 Farm Bill, can help supplement these funds with useful investments in rural infrastructure development, as well as resiliency efforts including adding renewable energy and storage at bus charging locations.  

Finally, as lawmakers and officials develop and implement support for electric school buses, they should work more fully to realize an equity-centric approach. This includes designing processes and program outcomes to address long-standing inequities in our transportation and other systems as well as the related history of systemic racial discrimination in the United States. It is in doing so that we can ensure that low-income communities, communities of color, and those communities most burdened by air pollution are the first to benefit from electric school buses.

Every student across the United States deserves a clean, safe way to get to school. By building momentum in the electric school bus movement, we can help accelerate the entire medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sector toward much-needed electrification, boost climate action and make our children’s futures brighter in more ways than one.

Dan Lashof is the director of World Resources Institute, United States. Follow him on Twitter: @DLashof

Sue Gander is the director of the Electric School Bus Initiative at World Resources Institute. Follow her on Twitter: @Sue_Gander