What Happened
Reuters reported Saturday that soaring diesel prices since the start of the Iran war are draining tight U.S. school district budgets, making buses, generators and school operations more expensive in districts from Washington to Texas to remote Alaska.
According to Reuters, the price paid by U.S. fleets for diesel has jumped 67% since December to $5.52 a gallon. Samsara estimated that increase would add about $1.8 billion to the annual cost of operating U.S. school buses.
A survey commissioned by AASA, the School Superintendents Association, found close to a third of U.S. school districts are moving money away from other funds or programs to cover fuel costs, while nearly a fifth are tapping reserves or rainy-day funds, Reuters reported.
Why This Matters
School transportation is one of those basic services everyone forgets is expensive until the invoice arrives wearing boots. Districts still have to pick up students. Rural districts still have long routes. Some Alaska schools also depend on diesel for heat and power.
Reuters quoted Yakima Superintendent Trevor Greene saying the fuel shock is more than a straw on the camel's back, calling it "like a haystack." His district recently paid 64% more year over year for diesel, adding roughly $213,000 in annual fuel costs, about the equivalent of two teacher salaries.
The Dumb Part With The Bus Route Blowback
The dumb part is not that oil prices move. The dumb part is watching a war-policy decision show up as a school-budget problem and then asking local administrators to solve it with route consolidation, anti-idling rules and financial origami.
Nothing says "global consequences" like a superintendent in Minnesota trying to keep classroom cuts away from a diesel bill while Washington talks about strategy in the abstract. The bus still has to run. The fuel station does not accept press statements.
The Bottom Line
Some large districts are partly insulated through contracts or alternative-fuel buses. Los Angeles Unified told Reuters that 70% of its roughly 1,300-bus fleet runs on alternative fuels or batteries.
But for districts still locked into diesel, the math is ugly: foreign policy at the top, fuel shock in the middle, and a school business officer at the bottom trying to make the spreadsheet stop smoking.
Sources
Reuters: Rising diesel costs from Iran war strain U.S. school budgets