It's not so much that the new $10 billion Education Jobs Fund makes any money available to school district transportation departments as much as it promises fewer further cuts or reductions to support service budgets. At least that's the hope.

With the publication of national guidelines on selecting the safest school bus stops for students, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to continue rolling out new or revised training materials that are of interest to school transporters, and the long desired national release from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood encouraging more students to ride the school bus.

Last week during the annual American School Bus Council Summit, a representative made the comment that, to date, the best federal funding opportunity open to school bus operators is the Diesel Emissions Reduction Program, or DERA, which is also open to the heavy-duty trucking and commercial bus sectors, just to name a few.