Volkswagen pays for new school buses at Ozarks school district

Missouri has just paid for 28 brand new school buses. But, it's not taxpayer money. The cash is coming from a major carmaker.

"This is our new bus," Chadwick Superintendent Dana Comstock proudly remarked, "611 miles on it."

Bus number 7 is no longer old number 7. The new ride comes complete with modern amenities.

"It has an air conditioner," says Comstock.

The final price for the 2020 bus is $99,739. It replaced a 1998 International.

The new bus never would have appeared in Chadwick without a major scandal by Volkswagen. The company cheated on emissions to make their cars seem to run cleaner.

Part of the VW penance includes financial penalties. It's money Missouri is now spending on cleaner running vehicles like updated school buses.

Tony Morris of says of Overseas and Domestic Auto Repair in Springfield, says VW repair is about half of his business. So, he likes how something bad is rolling over into something better for Missouri.

"I think that's a win for everybody there. I think Volkswagen will hopefully recover from their issues. What I like about it is it's helping our school districts. Our school districts are so underfunded anyway," remarked Morris.

"I was pretty excited going down the hallways letting everybody know we were getting a brand new bus," remarked Superintendent Comstock, "When we upgrade, we don't buy new usually. So, we've upgraded recently with 2013s and 2017s. To have a brand new bus, it makes all the difference to Chadwick."

"Old number 7 couldn't be just retired. It had to be dismantled and crushed," reported KY3's Paul Adler.

To prove it to the state, Chadwick documented the demolition.

New bus number 7 should be years away from the crusher. It's hoped it has plenty of miles still ahead on Chadwick's winding roads.

Some of the other districts getting money include Bradleyville and Mark Twain.

Click

if you want to see the full list, you can see the state's link to the right of this article on your desktop computer.