10/11/2026: The War With Iran and Your School Board’s Budget

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post and then posted it with a video. It was about how the war with Iran was driving diesel fuel over $6.00 a gallon and how that was affecting farmers. I was not ready for what happened.

The reel went viral. There were a few recurring themes in the comments:

• You’re lying because it costs more than $100 to fill a pickup truck (I have a medium-sized truck with a 21-gallon tank).
• Prices were higher under Biden (which is simply not true).
• Screw ‘em. Farmers voted for this (they may have voted for Trump, but they didn’t vote for this).

So let’s reengage and see if we can discuss the impacts of diesel costs without the agriculture sector being attacked quite so hard. Let’s talk about school buses.

While a small number of those big yellow buses run on propane, gasoline, or electricity, the vast majority, over 85%, run on diesel fuel. With diesel costs nearly doubling in the last few months, the School Superintendents Association, the Association of School Business Officials International, and the National Association for Pupil Transportation recently surveyed 188 school districts nationwide to assess the impact. Here are the results:

• Most school districts are running 10% to 20% over their fuel budget.
• When asked how they’re managing their extra costs, 63% said they’re taking funds from other parts of the transportation budget; 32% are taking funds from other programs; 19% are drawing on “rainy day” reserves; and 15% haven’t covered the extra expenses yet.

Districts are using a variety of measures to cut costs, including consolidating routes, reducing idling time by cutting stops, reducing wait times at individual stops, moving from yellow buses to non-diesel vehicles, and eliminating all non-essential trips, such as field trips.

Even with those changes, the expense to school systems could be devastating. Alabama budgeted $532 million for transportation last year. That means Alabama taxpayers may have to come up with over $100 million in extra transportation costs because of the needless war with Iran.

The bottom line? Cash-strapped public-school systems are forced to run fewer, longer routes, meaning more time behind the wheel for drivers and more time on the bus for students. That won’t be good for anyone.

All of this because of a war that didn’t have to happen.

We deserve better.

Be well. We’ll talk soon.