The On-Road Subcommittee works to increase leveraging of EPA Clean School Bus USA funds.

The subcommittee goal is to increase the 2007 EPA Clean School Bus USA funds from $1.2 million to $3 million by leveraging funds from other agencies and partners by June 2008.

The subcommittee will accomplish this goal by identifying and sharing information on other school bus retrofit funding sources and opportunities.

The goals of national, regional, state and local clean school bus efforts are to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel engine school buses.

• 24 million children ride the school bus every day.

• On average, students spend an hour and a half each weekday in a school bus.

• School buses drive more than 4 billion miles each year.

School buses are the safest way for children to get to school.

However, pollution from diesel vehicles has health implications for everyone, especially children.

By working together, we can reduce pollution from public school buses making sure that school buses are also a very clean way for children to get to school.

Clean school bus efforts are bringing together partners from business, education, transportation, and public health organizations to work toward these goals:

• Encouraging policies and practices to eliminate unnecessary school bus idling.

• Upgrading (retrofitting) buses that will remain in the fleet with better emission control technologies and/or fueling them with cleaner fuels.

• Replacing the oldest buses in fleets with new, less polluting buses.