But for school districts, the issue is even more severe. The cost of fuel for just one school bus runs into thousands of dollars every year, and when diesel prices soar, school districts feel it in their budgets.

Electric school buses offer a solution. They can help districts save on fuel costs and insulate school budgets from the volatility of the global oil market. Here in Little Rock, we’re showing how this can work.

The district first introduced electric school buses to our fleet in August 2025, and already the savings are adding up. Over the first few months of the current school year, the old diesel buses cost 59 cents per mile in fuel. The electric buses? Just 31 cents.

With school buses averaging around 10,000 miles per year, that amounts to thousands of dollars saved for the district with every electric school bus we put on the road. Now, with diesel prices  over this time last year, those savings are even greater.

This solution isn’t unique to Little Rock. In , the district cut costs 80% per mile by switching from diesel to electric. It has put that money to good use, too, giving teachers a raise.

from the World Resources Institute shows just how dramatic these savings can be, particularly with diesel prices over $5. The institute estimates that the average annual cost to fuel a diesel school bus has risen from $7,600 last year to nearly $12,000 this year. And while electric rates have gone up too, the average cost to power electric school buses rose from an estimated $3,100 last year to about $4,000 this year.

In other words: It costs about three times less to power an electric school bus, on average, than one that runs on diesel. 

Crucially, the Little Rock district was able to use federal funding through the Clean School Bus Program to purchase our electric school buses. That’s important because right now, the upfront purchase price is higher than for diesel vehicles. But by using this funding to bring electric buses to our district, we’ve been able to see savings right away.

There are plenty of other good reasons to bring electric rides to our community. The school buses are cleaner, quieter, smoother and healthier for students than the old diesel models. They have no tailpipe emissions that spew harmful pollutants that can damage kids’ developing lungs and overall health. And they’re a great way to show students that sustainability can start at home.

But when it comes down to dollars and cents, there’s one thing that’s clear: Our district is saving money on fuel costs thanks to the new electric school buses. While we hope to see diesel prices come down soon for everyone, we’re glad to know that the federal funds we used to bring clean, electric rides to our students is already paying dividends.

Chemical fires, leaks and explosions happen at U.S. industrial facilities — incidents such as four disasters in greater Los Angeles over Memorial Day weekend, including one involving a chemical tank that and forced and to evacuate, and a the next day in Longview, Washington, that killed 11 men.

Yet the Environmental Protection Agency is to the very program protecting Americans from such , the . The program was in response to the 1984 , in which a pesticide factory owned and operated by the U.S.-based Union Carbide Corp. leaked toxic methyl isocyanate gas, killing thousands.

Children are the most vulnerable to chemical disasters. Their are going through rapid and delicate developmental phases, and their immune systems — the primary defense against infections, diseases and harmful chemicals — are physiologically immature. It takes only tiny quantities of a hazardous chemical to cause life-altering and sometimes life-ending harm. Cancers and other ill effects can emerge at any time in the following days, years or even decades, and also in .

It is obvious that the nation’s barebones and outdated industrial safety systems desperately , and that an expansion of the Risk Management Program’s chemical list is long overdue. The program regulates , and only when they are stored in massive quantities. MMA, the volatile toxic chemical that triggered the evacuations in Southern California, is not even on the list, nor is , a fertilizer chemical that exploded in , in 2013, killing 15 and injuring hundreds. Had that disaster occurred in the daytime, some at nearby schools could have been harmed, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Ammonium nitrate is the same chemical that burned in a , fertilizer plant in 2022, engulfing communities in toxic smoke and threatening to become one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. The site is adjacent to daycare centers, grade schools and colleges, including Wake Forest University. The country has other facilities that store this same chemical.

A recent analysis found that are located within 10 miles of facilities that use or store large quantities of , or other extremely dangerous substances. One in three children attend school in chemical disaster vulnerability zones, the highest-risk locations based on chemical toxicity, blast potential, topography and other factors. 

Utah, Rhode Island, Texas, Louisiana and Nevada have the largest proportion of . Kids in Houston and Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Memphis; and Wilmington, Delaware face even greater danger, with many schools located in multiple overlapping vulnerability zones. Children at San Jacinto Elementary School in Deer Park, Texas, are in the vulnerability zones of a staggering 41 chemical facilities, and 10 high-risk facilities. New Jersey, Texas, California and Illinois each have vulnerability zones that expose over 500,000 children to chemical risks. 

The Risk Management Program applies to over 11,000 chemical manufacturers, water treatment plants, industrial agriculture facilities, pulp and paper mills, and other facilities that use, store and manufacture immense quantities of toxic and flammable chemicals. It requires them to develop plans to prevent and mitigate chemical disasters. But the Trump administration’s proposal would . For example, it would eliminate the requirement that those using the largest quantities of the highest-risk chemicals with the greatest potential for off-site impacts, and factories that experienced recent chemical disasters, document and sometimes implement safer alternatives. It would also weaken or eliminate third-party audits after disasters, remove mandates for backup power for monitoring equipment used to detect unplanned releases during emergencies, and do away with planning requirements for power loss and the risk of such as hurricanes, flooding and wildfires.

The community members, environmental health and justice organizations, medical professionals and labor groups in our coalition have been petitioning the EPA to stop the rollback, but the agency has not responded. Everything this EPA is doing is shockingly reckless and callous, from of formaldehyde that the government considers , to approving made from “forever” chemicals, to proposing to exempt from the safeguards of the Clean Air Act.

Millions of children live and go to school in the shadows of chemical plants and other industrial facilities. They deserve an EPA that goes the extra mile to protect them, not one that plays Russian roulette with their lives.

Clarification: This story has been updated to include research that found that one in three children attend school in a chemical disaster vulnerability zone.