Opinion: Our kids' health is at stake. Congress can bring more electric school buses to Iowa.

We are advocating for the current infrastructure discussions in Washington to lead to increased and consistent funding that would equitably electrify our school buses.

Karin Stein and Kerri Johannsen
Guest columnists

Iowa can and should become an example for how Midwestern states transition completely to electric school buses. Consider the numbers: About 480,000 school buses transport over 25 million children to schools across the country.  

In Iowa alone, 250,000 children ride school buses twice a day, every school day, on a total of about 3,000 buses. Most of these buses run on dirty diesel engines, spewing pollution that can cause cancer and trigger asthma attacks, while making climate change worse. 

Children who ride diesel school buses are exposed to carcinogenic, asthma-causing pollution. And the air quality inside a school bus can be up to 10 times worse than outside the bus. Children are more susceptible to health harms from this pollution, given their still-developing respiratory systems and faster breathing rates.   

It does not have to be this way. Transitioning school buses to 100% electric power will help clean up the air we all breathe. Although the initial investment in electric school buses is currently higher than their diesel counterparts, they are much less costly to operate and maintain. 

Electric buses have fewer moving parts that can break down, so they cost far less to keep up and running. Each electric bus can save almost $2,000 a year in fuel and $4,400 a year in reduced maintenance costs

Around the country, cities and utilities can step in to support this process by building charging infrastructure and providing affordable rates for electric bus charging. Innovative partnerships could allow the batteries of these buses to serve as a source of power for local grids during their down time. 

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Replacing all of our school buses with zero-emission alternatives could avoid, on average, 5.3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Some school districts are even talking about financing the cost of the buses in part with the sale of carbon credits.

As advocates with Moms Clean Air Force and the Iowa Environmental Council, and as mothers ourselves, we are advocating for the current infrastructure discussions in Washington to lead to increased and consistent funding that would equitably electrify our school buses.

Rural and low-income school districts are typically the most impacted when there is a budget cut, so it is important to ensure that funds and incentives are fairly allocated and distributed. These communities should be prioritized, as they rely heavily on school buses due to connectivity or economic restraints.

This is a significant opportunity for our state to transition away from diesel school buses to improve our children’s health, education, and wellbeing, and to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

Let’s get it right, Iowa. Let's electrify. Our kids’ health is at stake. 

Karin Stein

Karin Stein is the Iowa organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, a national organization of nearly 1.5 million members whose mission is to protect children from air pollution and climate change.  Stein, who is originally from Colombia, also leads the organization’s EcoMadres program in Iowa, which empowers Latina and Latino parents to take action on these issues. 

Kerri Johannsen

Kerri Johannsen is energy program director with the Iowa Environmental Council. She previously developed energy policy with the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, administered the Iowa Power Fund for innovative clean energy projects, and worked as an analyst and Legislative Liaison with the Iowa Utilities Board before joining the Council in 2016.