Roanoke, Fairfax, Henrico schools receive $32.6M to replace old school buses

U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine announced $32,557,965 for Virginia public schools to replace old, polluting school buses with new, zero-emission models.

The funding is made possible by the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program, which was created through the Inflation Reduction Act.

“We’re thrilled to see this funding going towards ensuring that Virginia’s students are headed to school in new and nonpolluting school buses,” the senators said. “Laws like our Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law continue to work together to make improvements that keep our air cleaner and our infrastructure stronger for generations to come.”

The funding is broken down as follows, but final project details and funding amounts may change as schools finalize their project needs:

$16,722,965 for Roanoke City Public Schools to replace 50 school buses.
$12,900,000 for Fairfax County Public Schools to replace 43 school buses.
$2,935,000 for Henrico County Public Schools to replace 10 school buses.

Warner and Kaine have strong records supporting federal funding for upgrades to school buses and other infrastructure across Virginia. The senators’ bipartisan infrastructure law awarded a historic $5 billion for school bus upgrades across the country, with about half of awards still to come. Through that law and additional federal grant programs, the senators have previously announced awards to upgrade hundreds of school buses across several school districts in Virginia. They have also announced significant funding to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the Commonwealth.