North Carolina Education Officials Ask Lawmakers for Help Covering School Bus Diesel Costs – V 101.9 Charlotte

North Carolina Education Officials Ask Lawmakers for Help Covering School Bus Diesel Costs  V 101.9 Charlotte

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) plans to ask the General Assembly for a $40 million school transportation fuel reserve fund to cover diesel costs that exceed existing state allotments for school buses.DPI officials, including Senior Director of Government Affairs and Strategy Geoff Coltrane, have told lawmakers that districts are feeling a significant impact on transportation budgets because of rising diesel prices.NC Newsline reported that between August and the beginning of October, school districts in the state spent $17.1 million on 3.8 million gallons of diesel fuel. This amount is close to double the $8.6 million spent for 3.6 million gallons during the same period last school year, according to data DPI presented to the State Board of Education on Wednesday, Nov.

4. Districts also spent $8.6 million on 3.7 million gallons in that same period during the 2024-25 school year.“We were seeing that school districts are spending about twice as much on fuel in the first couple of months of the school year as they were in the previous two school years, even though they bought the same amount of gallons,” Geoff Coltrane, DPI's senior director of government affairs and strategy, told the board last Wednesday.AAA reports diesel costs in North Carolina, $3.50 per gallon a year ago, are now around $5.50. This increase has strained school