By Ada Gupta | Posted March 20, 2025
School buses are the crux of public schools, with the majority of students and their families relying on these services to get to school and back home safely. In the context of traditional busing, a regular diesel-powered school bus can be argued as a more viable option in a massive scope, but many assumptions about their benefits have been proven false.
A traditional Montgomery Township School Bus.
Truth be told, the magnitude of the benefits of electric buses do outweigh the cons. For the 5,000-plus students who use the buses, there is one pertinent question that we need to honestly acknowledge, and that is the expense associated with the shift to electric busing.
The Montgomery school district operates a fleet of diesel-powered buses. The average initial cost of each bus is about $155,000. In contrast, electric school buses, would have an initial cost of $425,000. These are just the upfront values.
From a maintenance standpoint, the Montgomery school district spends $300,000 annually on fuel/diesel expenses; and has 63 buses operating in the school district, which means it is approximately $4,800 to fuel each diesel school bus per annum. On the other hand, electric buses have a complex energy consumption rate, and this is a key factor in restraining our district from investing.
According to the Montgomery School District Director of Transportation, Dwayne D. Washington- Velazquez, “Currently the (electric school) buses are not made to last for an entire triple-tiered route; including high school, middle school, and elementary school. “The buses would need to be [re]charged before being able to complete the entire tier.” This would become tedious, and costly, in the long run. This becomes a deciding factor that tips the scale towards keeping fossil fuels, rather than transitioning to electric.
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One progressive incentive that may help are the grants that the state of New Jersey offers. For example, the state of New Jersey has proactively implemented the Electric School Bus Grant Program which provides $15 million per annum to assist schools in a transition to electric busing, contributing to the costs of charging infrastructure and maintenance costs. In addition to this, if we just lay the foundations of this transition and contribute to the consumption of electric busing, the overall price of the manufacturing will go down; the product will get cheaper.
Wealth has become the essence of decision making and economic development, but it should not be a critical facet in forming an outlook on this transition. Now why should we invest? Where is the motivation, and how do the adolescents who utilize these services immensely benefit from the transition?
Health has become a focal point in the lives of adults and students alike. Parents are constantly in search of avenues and solutions in order to keep their children’s well being robust, but what we don’t realize is that we could potentially eradicate some of the most critical problems that are degrading the health of the children in our community with the support we put under this transition. The scientific background to this is extensive, but, put simply, the use of diesel-powered transportation utilizes the pollutant of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, etc.).
We know this impacts the earth, but what should be more critically considered is the impact it has on students. New Jersey is reporting hundreds of lives lost yearly as an effect of diesel fuel usage, not to mention that New Jersey has 21,700 school buses registered, with 99% running on fossil fuels. If we take a proactive stance, these numbers could take a turn for the better.
Carbon dioxide (one of many fossil fuels) is a known carcinogen; it leads to asthma, cancer, and future respiratory illnesses. These problems are collectively detrimental to students’ ability to participate in sports, their focus on academics, and it will ultimately degrade their environment/community in various aspects of their life.
Electric busing has been shown to decrease harmful emissions by 75% in New Jersey alone. Therefore, by funding electric bus usage we can eliminate these problems within our community, and increase students’ capability of performing well in a world that is getting increasingly competitive and stressful.
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Montgomery schools provide extensive resources, facilitate many clubs and groups, and have a strong relationship base, but students cannot use these assets to the most effective extent if they are limited by forces unknown to them. Given that we take charge of the deterrents in this transition, Director of Transportation, Dwayne D. Washington-Velazquez, has said that “we (the school district) will absolutely explore electric buses.”
This is not a simple recommendation, conversation, or question. Change is inevitable, and transitions are gradual, but as a community we can advance the use of transportation services in our schools. We are not talking about funding a huge initiative for the short term, we are educating ourselves and evolving for the future generations.
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