• Milwaukee Public Schools will begin transporting students on 50 new electric buses this fall.
• The district plans to add another 100 electric buses over the next three years.
• Funding comes from federal pandemic relief aid and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants.
• Officials aim to reduce costs, lower carbon emissions, and help decrease childhood asthma rates.

Beginning this fall, thousands of students will catch rides to and from Milwaukee Public Schools by electric bus.

At an event June 8, MPS unveiled the arrival of the new electric buses, 50 of which will transport about 6,000 students starting this September. MPS officials said its transportation partners will add another 100 electric buses to service by the 2028-29 school year.

Once all 150 electric buses are on the road, about 22% of buses used to transport MPS students will be electric, according to figures provided by David Fifarek, MPS senior director of transportation services.

The initiative is fully funded through federal pandemic relief aid and about $40 million in grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a district spokesperson said. The district’s transportation providers are constructing charging infrastructure and will cover the cost of electricity, which district leaders said will help MPS save money.

MPS officials said the initiative is meant to cut costs amid rising fuel prices and to help reduce the city’s childhood asthma rates. The electric buses will additionally push MPS closer toward achieving its goal of reducing the district’s carbon emissions by 45% over the next four years, said Superintendent Brenda Cassellius.

According to the EPA, diesel exhaust is a significant contributor to climate change, as well as childhood asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

In 2024, Milwaukee had the nation’s highest rate of asthma-related emergency department visits, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America reported. Across the U.S., public school children are about twice as likely to have asthma as their school-aged peers.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are particularly studying the link between air pollution and asthma-related visits to school nurses in MPS.

Cassellius said each electric bus will replace a diesel bus, resulting in “fewer emissions at bus stops, near our schools and in the communities our families call home.”

Ben Schutzman, CEO of Highland Electric Fleets, which provides the vehicles, said “replacing just five diesel school buses with electric buses can reduce the risk of pediatric asthma for approximately 1,500 students.”

“In a city where asthma remains a huge concern, that is a very meaningful step forward,” Cassellius said.

There are also financial benefits as MPS seeks to tighten its budget amid broader fiscal challenges, Cassellius added. With fuel prices soaring nationwide, school districts have incurred extra transportation costs.

From March to June, the district said in a statement, MPS spent about $800,000 in diesel surcharges, which are additional fees that bus contractors charge districts to offset higher gas prices.

“That kind of volatility makes it harder to budget and harder to invest where it matters most,” Cassellius said. “This initiative is helping us change that and will allow us to bring more stability to our transportation costs.”

At a School Board meeting in May, MPS interim Chief Operating Officer Michael Turza said the district expects to save money by making the switch, with daily operating costs decreasing because electric buses do not rely on fuel.

The district does not own the buses. MPS Chief Financial Officer Aycha Sawa told board members that the district’s bus vendors instead purchase the buses, and MPS reimburses them under the federal grant.

Contractors who receive the funding must operate in the district for five years, Fifarek said. The companies are also installing charging infrastructure at local bus terminals, which he said creates a long-term investment that could support further expansion of electric buses.

MPS now joins a growing number of school districts in Wisconsin and across the country that are transitioning to electric transportation.

Fifarek said MPS may seek additional EPA grants to increase the number of electric buses in the future.

Kayla Huynh covers K-12 education, teachers and solutions for the Journal Sentinel. Contact: khuynh@gannett.com. Follow her on X: @_kaylahuynh.

Operation Metro Surge cost Minneapolis nearly $700 million in lost wages and business closures, according to an updated assessment city leaders released Wednesday.

The report looked at figures from December 2025 through April 2026. Previously, the city had released data showing that the federal immigration enforcement action cost the city $203 million in January alone.

The Whittier and Central neighborhoods were the most impacted, the analysis says, as those areas reported the most Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity during the surge.

Colonial Market’s Daniel Hernandez said he was selling just 15% of his stock during the surge at his south Minneapolis location. He had only just opened the grocery store in November 2024, and despite a strong start, revenue only declined as community members faced uncertainty about immigration policies. He said he’s forced to shut down his Lake Street location after losing $3 million.  

“I might be in the floor right now but I know I’m going to go up again,” said Hernandez. “Because our community deserves a place that cares about them, and that place is us, Colonial Market.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey touted the city’s small business resiliency fund, which last week sent license fee refunds to 1,200 businesses. 

“Minneapolis is resilient, we’re compassionate, we’re tough and we have consistently shown grit,” Frey said, while encouraging residents to patron restaurants and stores.

According to new research from North Star Policy Action, the state’s leisure and hospitality industry was the most deeply impacted sector across the state. The sector also represents 8.7% of the state’s workforce and is on average one of the lowest-paid industries, with most employees working paycheck-to-paycheck.

INDIANAPOLIS — A person was fatally shot on the north side of Indianapolis Wednesday morning, according to police.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says officers were dispatched to investigate a shots fired incident in the 6700 block of Woodmere Circle in the Delaware Trails area, west of Hoover Road, around 5:41 a.m.

They arrived and located a person suffering a gunshot wound.

IMPD originally reported their condition as “awake and breathing,” though the person died sometime after arriving at a hospital.

According to Public Information Officer Drew Brown, the person who called police was the shooter in the incident.

He told police that two masked individuals approached him before shots were fired. The shooter is cooperating with law enforcement, police said.

Another person was detained on scene; IMPD did not identify or state their role in the incident.

This is a developing story.