This story aired in the May 1, 2025 episode of Crosscurrents.
School buses aren’t a new idea. And they’re one of the last modes of transit to see much innovation … until recently.
The "electrification" trend now includes heavy duty vehicles. And the EV school bus is emerging as a powerful tool for lowering emissions and improving public health. Plus these EV buses will save schools money in the long-run.
Oakland Unified School District has been transitioning to electric buses, but recent freezes and thaws of federal funding have caused disruptions. State funding is helping, but it’s still a long journey.
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Story Transcript:
REPORTER: It is seven 30 on a Friday morning, and I'm in Deep East Oakland with Mateo Hernandez, who is really into my microphone.
MATEO HERNANDEZ: My name is Mateo.
REPORTER: His mom, Lizbeth Zamora, is here too.
LIZBETH ZAMORA: Mateo is seven and he's in first grade.
REPORTER: We are waiting for the school bus while Mateo chats away.
LIZBETH ZAMORA: He's been riding the bus since he was in preschool.
REPORTER: But back then he didn't seem to enjoy it. His autism makes him sensitive to loud noises and smells.
LIZBETH ZAMORA: He would say it was loud and cover his ears.
REPORTER: And even Lizbeth noticed the heavy exhaust when she walked him to the bus.
LIZBETH ZAMORA: I don't know, sometimes I would get a little headache.
REPORTER: But that all changed this fall when a new bus started rolling up. Gone are those fumes, and the noise. I didn't even notice it approach, but Mateo spotted it.
MATEO HERNANDEZ: The bus is here.
REPORTER: As the door closes and they pull away from the curb, it sounds more like a spaceship than a school bus.
Sound of the bus pulling away.
REPORTER: That's because it's powered by batteries, not diesel. Lots of school districts across the country have one or two electric buses but Oakland is a different story.
Newsclips
KRON: The Oakland Unified School District made history today…
GMA: The first school district to swap all of its school buses to electric models…
Bloomberg: This is a really interesting development…
KPIX: …huge leap forward for an East Bay School district….
REPORTER: Oakland Unified now has 74 electric buses. I spoke with the district's transportation director, Kim Raney. She told me the buses lower emissions and they better support the thirteen hundred students with special needs who ride the bus.
She says the diesel ones just didn't serve them well.
KIM RANEY: They're riding on a noisy bus, which already amps a lot of special needs kids up. You're smelling the diesel coming in, the fumes. It's hot. It's noisy.
REPORTER: Here’s what it sounds like inside a diesel bus. Loud sounds of diesel bus. And to compare… this is one of Oakland’s new buses. Quiet electric bus.
The there’s a catch.
KIM RANEY: An EV, is about 300 grand. A regular bus. A diesel bus is about 125, 000 to 150,000…
REPORTER: That’s a big difference--around twice as expensive. Plus, districts need to install charging stations, pushing the cost to switch even higher.
But Laura Deehan, the state Director for Environment California, says the extra cost is worth it.
LAURA DEEHAN: The diesel fumes can cause respiratory ailments. It's also been linked to impacts to the brain now and including ADHD and other behavioral issues.
The idea that children with their developing lungs and their bodies that are so much more vulnerable to the impacts of exposure to pollutants, the idea that they would be exposed to that level of pollution every day, while they’re waiting at the bus stop or waiting for the bus.
It's just absurd when we have alternatives, clean electric school buses that can transport children safely without that pollution.
"The idea that they would be exposed to that level of pollution every day,
It's just absurd when we have alternatives, clean electric school buses that can transport children safely without that pollution." - Laura Deehan, State Director for Environment California
REPORTER: It’s dangerous for the drivers, too. Diesel exhaust can worsen asthma and is even linked to cancer and heart disease. And it’s not just that these buses are no longer powered by fossil fuels.
LAURA DEEHAN: One thing that's unique about school buses is that they're really not being used at all after school hours. And so you can then basically plug into that battery potential power and it can help, uh, meet the electricity needs of the community.
REPORTER: So when, say, electricity demand spikes on a hot summer day, the buses can provide power, sending it back to the grid.
Plus, electricity is a much cheaper fuel than diesel. And these electric buses have far lower maintenance costs. They could save Oakland up to $440,000 a year. (Editor’s note: that is based on an estimate of $6,000 yearly savings, per bus, by the Electric School Bus Initiative.)
But the upfront price tag is steep. Oakland's fleet and charging infrastructure reportedly cost north of $50 million over five years.
Now, the school district isn’t on the hook for the whole amount. Here’s Laura again.
LAURA DEEHAN: California's been a major recipient of the federal funds that have come through the federal infrastructure law, and that's been great.
REPORTER: President Biden’s clean School Bus Program set aside $5 billion for electric buses.
School districts around the country have already received $1 billion of that, and another $2 billion was on the way. But when President Trump came into office, he directed the Environmental Protection Agency to freeze that money.
Since then, the money has been released … but Sue Gander of the DC-based Electric School Bus Initiative, says the delays caused damage.
SUE GANDER: It's put a lot of strain on school districts. It has put a lot of strain on dealers, and it puts a lot of uncertainty on the manufacturers who are looking to build out their production lines. not to mention the kids who are missing out on these cleaner and quieter rides to school.
REPORTER: There’s also that other two billion dollars in the Clean School Bus program but the EPA hasn’t said when, or if, school districts will ever see that money… and they declined our request for an interview.
Here in California, the state has invested more than a billion dollars in clean school buses. But most school districts are a long way off from having fully electrified fleets.
In Oakland, Kim Raney told me the quiet, cleaner rides are already paying off. She’s getting fewer reports of bus-related incidents.
And back with Mateo at the bus stop, his mom, Lizbeth says she's seen an improvement too.
LIZBETH ZAMORA: He's doing much better. He participates more. His speech is also getting better. Yeah. And he's more social.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Sue Gander's last name. We regret the error.
