2026-05-16 10:07:46 UTC / 路透社
作者：丽莎·贝尔特莱因
2026年5月16日 上午10:07 UTC，1小时前更新
资料图：2023年7月19日，美国加利福尼亚州洛杉矶市中心，一名校车司机在驾车时避让路况。路透社/迈克·布莱克/资料图 购买授权，将在新标签页打开
- 美国学区的柴油燃料成本自去年12月以来上涨67%
- 近三分之一的美国学区被迫调整资源分配
- 洛杉矶因使用绿色燃料和电动校车，受影响程度较低
洛杉矶5月16日（路透社）——自伊朗局势紧张以来，柴油价格飙升正在耗尽本已紧张的美国学区预算，校车运营和发电机供电成本随之上升，官员们表示，他们无法长期承担这一压力。
从华盛顿州亚基马到德克萨斯州韦科的学区，都在动用应急储备金以维持校车运营。据路透社采访，阿拉斯加州偏远地区的官员正紧急筹措足够燃料以保障供电。
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“这不仅仅是压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草，而是整堆干草，”亚基马学区总监特雷弗·格林说道。
这场压力是美以对伊朗战争引发的诸多连锁反应之一，该冲突已扰乱了全球约五分之一的石油供应。
自2月底战事爆发以来，燃料价格创下有记录以来最快涨幅之一。这一价格飙升扰乱了全球经济，在美国国内也造成了足够大的冲击，成为总统唐纳德·特朗普在11月中期选举前的政治包袱——当时他所在的共和党正试图维持其在美国国会微弱的多数席位优势。
美国校车运营商是柴油的主要采购方，据美国学校巴士委员会数据，其年柴油消耗量超过8亿加仑。
据车队管理技术提供商Samsara IOT.N（将在新标签页打开）近期的一项分析，自去年12月以来，美国各类车队支付的柴油价格上涨67%，至每加仑5.52美元，这将使校车运营的年度成本增加约18亿美元。
国际学校业务官员协会执行董事詹姆斯·罗恩表示，对于本已预算紧张的学区来说，这是一项巨大挑战。
“学区可以为成本上涨做规划，但价格的剧烈波动使得精准预算非常困难，”他说，“即便有些学区今年通过储备金或临时措施消化了成本上涨，他们未来可能不再具备这样的灵活性。”
一项由学校总监协会（AASA）委托、5月4日当周对188名学校管理人员开展的调查显示，近三分之一的美国学区正在从其他资金或项目中抽调资金以支付上涨的燃油成本，近五分之一的学区正在动用储备金或应急基金。
该调查结果仅提供给路透社，调查显示，学校管理人员正通过合并校车线路、执行怠速停车禁令、调整燃油采购方式、推迟维护工作、削减行政开支和人员编制来节省开支。
“严重资金不足”
华盛顿州亚基马学区管理人员表示，他们近期支付的柴油价格同比上涨64%，至每加仑6.30美元。格林表示，按这一价格计算，该学区运营60辆校车每年需多支付21.3万美元燃油费——大致相当于两名教师的年薪总和。
他说，在这个以农业为主、贫困率达86%的学区，这是一项沉重负担，而该学区本就“严重资金不足”。
与此同时，该学区首席财务官雅各布·库珀表示，学区正选择在油价下跌时零星采购，而非一次性加满3万加仑容量的柴油储罐，以此“勉强撑到年底”。
明尼苏达州西北部锡夫里弗福尔斯公立学校总监克里斯托弗·米尔斯表示，自伊朗局势紧张以来，用于接送多达800名学生的柴油成本上涨了约30%。
米尔斯说，该学区正努力将直接影响控制在课堂教学范围内，“但如果价格继续上涨，我们可能不得不削减对学生的支持服务”。
即便在石油资源丰富的德克萨斯州，学校也未能幸免。韦科独立学区表示，该学区拥有80多辆校车，日均往返行程约60英里，4月初其支付的柴油价格同比上涨84%。
压力巨大
阿拉斯加州西南部的尤皮特学区，校车并未使用柴油，但教室供暖和社区发电机供电都依赖柴油。
“如果无法发电，我们就无法运营学校，”尤皮特学区总监斯科特·巴拉德在阿基亚查克的办公室接受电话采访时说道。
该学区服务550名学生，一年中大部分时间被冰封，只有很短的窗口期可以运输燃料。
因此，学区负责人现在面临一个艰难的选择，巴拉德说：他们是锁定比去年高出近66%的价格，还是赌油价会下跌？“我们正处于一个压力巨大的境地。”
与之形成鲜明对比的是，美国一些最大的学区部分规避了油价波动的影响。
纽约市学区是全美人口最多的学区，其约60%的学生接送业务外包给承包商，这些合同通常会将燃油价格变动转嫁给承包商，纽约校车承包商协会主席保罗·奎因·莫里说道。
与此同时，全美第二大学区洛杉矶联合学区多年来一直在逐步淘汰柴油动力校车。该学区发言人表示，在其约1300辆校车车队中，70%使用替代燃料或电池动力。
“柴油价格上涨继续影响洛杉矶联合学区的交通预算；不过，该学区已通过对清洁交通的大量投资，采取了积极措施减少对化石燃料的依赖，”一位发言人说道。
丽莎·贝尔特莱因报道；大卫·格雷戈里编辑
我们的报道准则：路透社信托原则，将在新标签页打开
Rising diesel costs from Iran war strain US school budgets
2026-05-16 10:07:46 UTC / Reuters
By Lisa Baertlein
May 16, 2026 10:07 AM UTC Updated 1 hour ago
File Photo: A school bus driver navigates while driving through downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. July 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
- Diesel fuel costs for school districts up 67% since December
- Nearly a third of US school districts forced to shift resources
- Impact muted in Los Angeles due to green fuels, electric buses
LOS ANGELES, May 16 (Reuters) – 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 in a shock officials say they will not be able to afford for long.
School districts from Yakima, Washington 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, according to Reuters interviews.
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“It’s more than a straw on the camel’s back, it’s like a haystack,” said Yakima Superintendent Trevor Greene.
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. The spike has upended economies around the globe. It has caused enough pain in the U.S. to be a political liability for President Donald Trump ahead of November midterm elections when his Republican party is trying to maintain slim majorities in the U.S. Congress.
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U.S. school bus operators are major buyers of diesel, consuming more than 800 million gallons of diesel annually, according to the American School Bus Council.
Since December, the price U.S. fleets of all types pay for diesel fuel has jumped 67% to $5.52 a gallon, an increase that would add about $1.8 billion to the annual cost of operating those school buses, according to a recent analysis by fleet management technology provider Samsara IOT.N, opens new tab.
That’s a huge challenge for schools already facing tight budgets, said James Rowan, executive director of the Association of School Business Officials International.
“Districts can plan for higher costs, but rapid swings in prices make it very difficult to budget accurately,” he said. “Even districts that have been able to absorb costs this year through reserves or temporary measures – they may not have that same flexibility going forward.”
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, according to a survey of 188 school officials commissioned by the School Superintendents Association known as AASA and conducted during the week of May 4.
School officials are trying to save money by consolidating bus routes, enforcing anti-idling measures, changing fuel purchasing practices, deferring maintenance work and reducing administrative spending and staffing, according to the survey, the results of which were shared exclusively with Reuters.
“TREMENDOUSLY UNDERFUNDED”
Washington State’s Yakima School District executives said the price they pay for diesel was recently up 64% year-on-year to $6.30 a gallon. At that price, the district would need to pay $213,000 more a year on fuel to operate its 60 buses – roughly the equivalent of salaries for two teachers, said Greene.
That is a big burden in an agriculture-dominated school district that has a poverty rate of 86%, and which is already “tremendously underfunded,” he said.
In the meantime, the district is making piecemeal purchases for its 30,000-gallon diesel tank on days when prices dip, instead of filling it up, as it “limps through the end of the year,” district CFO Jacob Kuper said.
Christopher Mills, superintendent of Thief River Falls Public Schools in northwestern Minnesota, said diesel costs tied to transporting as many as 800 students are up around 30% since the Iran war began.
The district is working to limit direct impacts on classrooms, Mills said, “but if the prices continue to increase we could be in a position of reducing support services to students.”
Even schools in oil-rich Texas have not been spared. The Waco Independent School District, which has more than 80 buses and average round-trip routes of about 60 miles per day, experienced an 84% year-over-year increase in the price it paid for diesel in early April, the district said.
PRESSURE-PACKED
In Southwestern Alaska’s Yupiit School District, diesel is not used for buses but for classroom heat, and community generators for power.
“If they can’t produce electricity, then we can’t run the school,” Yupiit School District Superintendent Scott Ballard said in a telephone interview from his office in Akiachak.
The district, which serves 550 students, is icebound for much of the year, giving it a short window to get fuel.
So, leaders now face a difficult choice, Ballard said: Do they lock in a price almost 66% higher than last year or gamble prices will fall? “We’re in a very pressure-packed situation.”
At the other extreme, some of the largest U.S. school districts are partially insulated from fuel price swings.
The New York City district, the nation’s largest by population, outsources about 60% of pupil transportation in arrangements that often shift fuel price changes to contractors, said Paul Quinn Mori, president of the New York School Bus Contractors Association.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest, has been moving away from diesel-powered buses for years. Of its roughly 1,300-bus fleet, 70% run on alternative fuels or batteries, a district spokesperson said.
“Rising diesel prices continue to impact Los Angeles Unified’s transportation budget; however, the district has taken proactive steps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels through significant investments in clean transportation,” a spokesperson said.
Reporting by Lisa Baertlein; Editing by David Gregorio
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