2023 School Bus Forever First Class Postage Stamps

With the release of this additional ounce stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates the iconic yellow school bus and its role inensuring that millions of children get to school and home again every day.
The stamp features a stylized ilustration of a 21st century yellow school bus, in profle in front of a sihouetted schoolhouse that ismore evocative of an earlier era. just under the building’s gable roof, a clock shows 10 minutes to 8; the morning bell wil ringSO0n.
Although vehicles dedicated to transporting children to and from school have operated since the late 19th century, it was only in1930 that the modern, enclosed, steel school bus came into being. And it was in 1939 that “National School Bus Chrome” firstbecame the vehicle’s standard color., That year, a group of state transportation oficials and bus and paint manufacturers gatheredat Columbia University’s Teachers College, in New York City, to develop safety and fabrication standards for school buses. Thegroup tested vaious colors and determined that black lettering showed most legibly on yellow, especialy in the dim light of dawnor dusk, Thirty-five states immediately began mandating that color, but it was not until 1974 that all states did.
Over the years, many of the original 1939 standards have changed, but not the color. Additional standards have been adopted torequire a mechanical stop amm on the driver’s side of the vehicle, vaious amber and red flashing lights, and cross-view mirrors, aldesigned to halt raffic when the bus stops to take on or discharge children. Other, more recent requirements have involved equallyimportant but less outwardly visible alterations to protect passengers in case of rollovers, colisions, and other mishaps
About 25 milion children across the United States ride a yellow bus to school every day. Besides providing reliable and safetransportation-a child is about 70 times safer riding the bus than being driven to school in a car -these buses keep milions ofcars off the road, saving bilions of gallons of gasoline and preventing milions of pounds of harmful carbon dioxide emissions. Yeteach bus remains its own litle worid, where countless childhood dramas play out, friendships form and dissolve, and daydreamsare dreamed as the landscape passes.
Artist Steve Wolf worked with art director Greg Breeding and designer Mike Ryan to create this stamp, which wilbe sold in panesof 20 and coils of 100.
The words “ADDITIONAL OUNCE” on this stamp indicate its usage value. Like a Forever@ stamp, this stamp will always be validfor the rate printed on it.
Made in the USA.