Breathe Easy, Massachusetts Students

Kids, when I was your age, I had to walk to the bus stop in the snow and inevitably, inhale a lungful of black exhaust smoke while boarding the idling bus.

Massachusetts students who started school this week can breathe easier, thanks to the MassCleanDiesel program. During the past three years, the state and federally funded program has fitted more than 2,100 school buses serving 300 communities across the state with devices designed to cut air pollution from diesel engines.

This is good news, considering that asthma rates in New England remain consistently higher for adults and children than in the rest of the country (read more about it in this this report from the Asthma Regional Council).

It also makes sense from an educational perspective, as the government and school departments are demonstrating conservation techniques that students are learning about in the classroom.

Could a fleet of Fryer Flyers — a Dallas County Schools bus that runs on biodiesel and recycled vegetable oil — be next?