School buses save hundreds of lives each year and are an important part of the education system. Factor in the environmental and financial benefits, and it’s hard to find a reason to send children to school any other way.

School buses maximize the likelihood that school children will arrive at school safely, on time and ready to learn.

■ School buses transport over 26 million of the 50 million students who attend school each day.

■ One school bus can carry the same number of passengers as 36 cars.

■ School buses save approximately 62 billion miles of driving each year.

■ School buses provide a convenience to families while saving them time and money.

■ Since the first school bus designed to accommodate wheelchairs was built in 1957, the school bus has transported millions of special-needs students to and from school.

■ School buses reduce traffic by keeping over 17 million cars off roads each year.

■ Students are about 70 times more likely to get to school safely if they take the school bus instead of traveling by car.

■ School buses save approximately 2.6 billion gallons of fuel each year.

■ The school bus industry provides millions of jobs each year.

■ School buses prevent over 20 million tons of CO2 from being released into the environment each year. This is the consumption equivalent of about 330,000 tanker trucks of gasoline.

■ Due to Environmental Protection Agency standards, school buses run cleaner than ever before.

■ School buses can be used to transport students and faculty to extra-curricular activities and be dispatched quickly to evacuate students in an emergency

Cutting school bus service can result in more traffic and higher concentrations of pollution.