As I told an auditorium full of attentive middle school students in rural Hood River, Oregon, last week, the U.S. now has about 5,000 electric school buses (ESBs) on the road (WRI). Their school, Wy’east, is the only one in the U.S. piloting an ESB-to-building resilience project, called MOVER, that could fuel their cell phones during a power outage. That last part drew their sharpest attention.
Electrics now represent 1% of yellow buses in the U.S., I told my fresh-faced audience (they assured me they were familiar with school buses in general). Why not more than 1% electric yet, I asked them, given how much healthier ESBs are for kids, communities and climate? On this they were not sure. Well, they cost a lot, I explained, plus change is hard, for all of us. Then some students posed questions about batteries, charging and range, similar to questions I get at conferences. I was impressed.
What I didn’t discuss with the kids was the U.S. government currently defaulting, illegally and yet by its own choice, on its financial commitments, including to the Wy’east district, for two ESBs it ordered last year through Round 3 of the Clean School Bus Program (CSBP). (The ESB for their district that is funded by the MOVER project is not affected, and will be arriving soon.) I didn’t talk with them about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) being eviscerated so that clean air, clean water, environmental justice and public health are wiped from its mission. Maybe I’m not the first adult to be intimidated by how hard it is talk with kids about hard things.
- Who is being stiffed by the CSBP, and what it means
- Why this goes far beyond ESBs
- Upcoming conferences | WASBE in-person gathering in Charlotte, NC
I’m Alison Wiley here in Oregon, an ESB and equity geek, and a partner in MOVER, the resilience project in Hood River, Oregon. I’ve worked in low-carbon transportation since 2006, focusing on electric buses since 2016. Find my Electric School Bus website and back newsletters here. I help school bus fleets move forward with electrifying, by writing this newsletter and as a consultant and grant writer. This newsletter is a member of the nationwide, equity-focused Alliance For Electric School Buses (AESB).
Who is being stiffed, and what it means
In the above infographic, the lower right corner refers to CSBP Round 3, a rebate program of $965 million awarded in spring 2024 to school districts and ESB related businesses such as Highland, Blue Bird, First Student and many others. Most of these organizations then ordered their ESBs because the U.S. government had promised payment. But now, no payments, not now and maybe not ever.
Imagine your employer suddenly deciding they don’t need to pay you for your work last month. Or maybe for your work this month, either. They don’t know; they’ll need to think about that. How stable can you now be? How can you plan for your future, or keep your commitments to others? You are anxious and fearful. You may band with others to lobby Congress, or sign this letter to Congress, as many school districts have done. But in an unstable environment, you will need to contract. Your core mission becomes secondary to your survival. Keep reading.
Why an ESB is more than an ESB
The blue side of the above graphic helps us see that ESBs are part of a much larger picture in our country. If you’ve been reading this newsletter awhile, you know that while I’m liberal and urban, I support rural communities, and school bus fleets everywhere, of all fuel types — school buses make public education possible. Rural bus fleets like Hood River’s, which often run on the thinnest of budgets, were made key recipients of CSBP grants because they are under-resourced. Ironically, they are now taking some of the heaviest blows as they are refused payment.
Both the private and public sectors are being destabilized by the federal administration’s refusal to keep its financial commitments. Unstable, weakened organizations are ripe for the scenarios in which Wall Street “investors” come in and buy them up, or privatize them if they were public. What historically follows is what I would call deinvestment. It’s a carving up of those organizations’ parts in ways that trample local interests. These takeovers destroy jobs and undermine communities, and consolidate power and wealth into fewer and fewer hands. They benefit the rich at the expense of rural and urban people alike, and the earth’s resources and the climate we all share.
I do support the need for businesses to be profitable. I applaud Zum (see banner photo on top) and First Student for being named among the Most Innovative Companies of 2025 by Fast Company magazine. Businesses can be profitable, though, without scorching the earth around them. And if profits were all that mattered, we would have no roads, public schools, parks or libraries. All of those things, like breathable air, are investments that don’t create profits or revenue. They create healthy kids — kids who deserve a clean ride to school — and lives worth living for all of us.
Upcoming Events
School Transportation News (STN) East, March 20-24 (right now!), Charlotte, NC. Contact Malinda Sandhu via LinkedIn if you’re a woman in school bus electrification (a WASBE) who’d like to meet up with similar women for networking and mutual support.
ACT Expo (Advanced Clean Transportation), April 28-May 1, Anaheim Convention Center, CA
Green Transportation Summit and Expo, June 10-12, Tacoma, WA (two months earlier than usual)
Oregon Pupil Transportation Association Conference, June 16-19, Bend, OR
Find many school bus (not necessarily ESB related) conferences and events on STN’s Industry Calendar
Financial support for this newsletter is provided in part by the World Resources Institute. While the World Resources Institute may engage as a partner on content, it does not control, nor does it necessarily endorse, the contents of this newsletter.
Alison Wiley (she/her/hers)
Electric School Bus Newsletter
TEDx talk
To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together. — African proverb