Soaring Diesel Costs Hit U.S. School Budgets Amid Iran War
YAKIMA, WASHINGTON — The black diesel pump at the edge of the Yakima School District’s bus depot told the story before any superintendent could. $6.30 a gallon, Sixty-four percent higher than last year.
For Trevor Green it wasn’t just a price. It was two teachers he couldn’t hire.
“The stress is immense,” Greene said from his office in Yakima, Washington. “School districts across the country are already operating on razor-thin margins. This is more than a straw on the camel’s back; it’s like a haystack.”
Greene is superintendent of the Yakima School District, an agriculture-dominated region where 86 percent of students live in poverty. His district is already “tremendously underfunded,” he said. Now, an extra $213,000 annually for diesel to run his 60-bus fleet means choosing between wheels in the morning and textbooks in the afternoon.
Soaring diesel prices since the onset of the Iran war are draining already tight U.S. school district budgets, making it more expensive to bus students and run generators — a shock officials say they will not be able to afford for long.
School districts from Yakima to Waco, Texas, are tapping emergency funding reserves to keep buses running. In remote Alaska, officials are scrambling to secure enough fuel to keep the lights on.
The stress reflects one of many knock-on impacts of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has disrupted the flow of around a fifth of the world’s oil supplies. Since the war started in late February, fuel prices have posted one of their most rapid climbs on record.
U.S. school bus operators are major buyers of diesel, consuming more than 800 million gallons annually, according to the American School Bus Council. Since December, the price U.S. fleets pay for diesel has jumped 67 percent to $5.52 a gallon, an increase that would add about $1.8 billion to the annual cost of operating school buses, according to an analysis by a fleet management technology providerSamsara (IOT. N).
The spike has upended economies around the globe and caused enough pain in the U.S. to be a political liability for President Donald Trump ahead of November’s midterm elections.
A survey of 188 school officials found that close to a third of U.S. school districts are now siphoning money away from other funds or programs to cover their increased fuel costs, while almost a fifth are tapping reserves or rainy day funds.
“That’s a huge challenge for schools already facing tight budgets,”James Rowan the executive director of the Association of School Business Officials International said. “Districts can plan for higher costs, but rapid swings in prices make it very difficult to budget accurately.”
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally as rising diesel prices become political liability a head of the midterm elections in Dayton Ohio, June 2, 2026. 'The Yakima school District reported paying $6.30 per gallon for diesel – a 64% year -over -year increase .The administration has not announced federal aid for school fuel budgets. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP Photo. ©2026 The Associated Press . All rights reserved.
In Yakima, the district is now making piecemeal purchases for its 30,000-gallon diesel tank on days when prices dip. “We’re limping through the end of the year,” said the district CFO Jacob Kuper.
Then there is Alaska, in the remote Yupiit School District in southwestern Alaska, where diesel is not used for buses; it is used for classroom heat and community generators for power. The district, which serves 550 students, is icebound for much of the year, giving it a short window to get fuel delivered.
Superintendent Scott Ballard now faces a brutal choice: lock in a price almost 66 percent higher than last year, or gamble that prices will fall. “We’re in a pressure-packed situation,” Ballard said in an interview.
Ballard said the stakes could not be higher. Without diesel, there is no heat. Without heat, there is no school. The district’s 550 students in villages like Akiachak and Tuluksak depend entirely on a single annual barge delivery before the river freezes.
He explained that his team is watching global news every day, hoping for a ceasefire, hoping prices drop. But hope is not a strategy when you have to sign a contract by next month.
“If they can't produce electricity, then we can't run the school." – Said Ballard in an interview”
Even schools in oil-rich Texas have not been spared. The Waco Independent School District saw its diesel costs surge 84 percent year-over-year.
Christopher MillsThe superintendent in northwestern Minnesota said diesel costs are up around 30 percent since the war began. “If the prices continue to increase, we could be in a position of reducing support services to students.”
Not all districts are equally affected. New York City outsources about 60 percent of pupil transportation, shifting fuel price changes to contractors. Los Angeles Unified has moved 70 percent of its bus fleet to alternative fuels or batteries.
But for most of America’s school districts, the pain is immediate. Back in Yakima, Superintendent Greene returned to the human cost.
“This is more than a straw on the camel’s back. It’s a haystack, ” Greene said.