Schools

Diesel exhaust from school buses contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants – including arsenic, benzene and formaldehyde – and it has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a likely carcinogen. Kids riding to school may be exposed to these health-harming pollutants in the buses.

But there is hope! Right now, federal and state rebates and grants provide an unprecedented opportunity for school districts to buy electric school buses and charging infrastructure. We can provide public health, data, technical, and grant writing support and more to districts working to bring more electric school buses to Georgia. 

Reach out to your school board members and district leadership to let them know you support them electrifying their bus fleet. Let your state elected officials know, too, that all of Georgia’s kids deserve to have clean, quiet rides in electric school buses. 

Electric school buses do not make air pollution, so little lungs breathe easier by not being exposed to diesel exhaust every school day. Replacing polluting, health-harming diesel buses with electric ones will improve health and achievement outcomes for Georgia’s children. 

Georgia’s aging diesel school bus fleets log 683,000 miles daily across 180 districts and result in children breathing in 4 to 15 times more diesel pollution inside the buses than the general public. Students may spend only 10% of their time each day riding diesel school buses to and from school, but these buses can contribute up to 33% of a student’s air pollution exposure. Diesel exhaust can cause respiratory illness, chronic respiratory inflammation, and trigger asthma attacks, and as well as contribute to reduced test scores and lower school attendance.