EPA is providing $5 billion in grants to replace existing school buses nationwide with clean, zero-emission buses.

People living in the Osborn School District are breathing cleaner air after the Phoenix neighborhood added two new electric school buses to its transportation fleet.

“There’s no pollution coming from those school buses when they’re sitting around waiting for kids to get on,” said Hazel Chandler, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother from Arizona. “There is no fumes when children ride the bus and it also reduces pollution and fumes in the neighborhoods.”

Kurt Collins drives school buses for the Osborn School District. He said one of the biggest differences he has noticed with the new buses is how quiet they are compared to their gasoline counterparts.

“Kids, parents and neighborhoods seem to like (the buses) too,” Collins said.

The two buses are the first in a fleet of six that the Osborn School District plans to deploy over the next two school years. The district was able to purchase them after two important partners came on board: the local community and the federal government.

“In 2017, we had a $50 million bond,” said Dr. Michael Robert, the district’s superintendent. A bond election allows voters to authorize a loan to the district, which can then pay for renovations, classroom upgrades and even electric school buses.

The 2017 bond election was followed by another in 2023: that for a $100 million bond. Robert said this was a sign from the Phoenicians that they had invested in the energy-saving projects the district proposed to pay for with the funds. It’s what led school officials to switch more than half of their school bus fleet to electric for the start of the 2025 school year.

Parking space for electric school buses. Parking spaces will have charging stations in the future. (Photo by Robert Gundran)

“We bought them all at the same time,” Robert said, noting that the first two buses are already on the road and the rest will be delivered soon. “We also applied for a grant from the EPA.”

Refers to the Clean School Bus program of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Using funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021, the EPA is providing $5 billion in grants to replace existing school buses nationwide with clean, zero-emission buses.

Osborn’s six buses are now fully covered by that program. Mesa Unified School District 4 received funding from the Clean School Bus program for 25 new buses. Isaac Elementary District scored six. Clark County will also receive 25.

Hazel Chandler, Arizona’s mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, is a field organizer for the group Moms Clean Air Force. It is an organization of parents fighting for cleaner air for future generations.

Chandler said Moms Clean Air Force worked with the federal government to get grant money for electric school buses included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“Clean school buses have been an important issue for (Moms Clean Air Force),” Chandler said. “We’ve worked hard to include that in the (bipartisan) Infrastructure Act… Most of the money that goes to school districts now from the EPA is gone for infrastructure money.”

It is not only activists who work for a better quality of life for children. Superintendent Robert said people across his district are looking for ways to make going to school safer and cleaner.

“We have neighborhood association groups that are (organizing) safe routes to schools and partnerships with schools to encourage walking and biking to school,” he said.

“It is vitally important that we reduce emissions that occur in neighborhoods. “That will encourage parents to want their children to walk and bike to school.”