Environmental Equity in Participation of the Clean Air School Bus Program: The Case of New York State
/Abstract
The vast majority of American children rely on school buses for their daily trips to and from school, and almost all of these school buses operate on diesel fuel. Research has found that during their daily commute, children are exposed to unhealthy levels of diesel exhaust. The New York State Clean Air School Bus Program has provided millions of dollars in retrofit and replacement funding for school districts statewide to clean up their school bus fleets. This study evaluates equity among school districts who chose to apply to the program and those that did not. Binary logistic regression was employed as a robust tool to reveal the effects of demographics and other social economical factors on the choice of applying when controlling for other factors that are likely to affect a school district’s decision process. It was found that economic variables had a significant impact on the likelihood of a school district applying to the program. The analyses provide a basis for policy and implementation change: without a more hands-on approach by the program coordinators during the application process, school districts with lower wealth and income are less likely to apply to the program, hence have reduced opportunity to make their school bus fleets cleaner.
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