Evaluating the Benefits of the EPA’s School Bus Rebate Program
Introduction
In the United States, around 25 million children take school buses to school. While school buses are generally safe, older buses can expose kids to harmful diesel exhaust, affecting their health and school attendance. To promote cleaner buses, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a School Bus Rebate Program, distributing over $27 million from 2012 to 2017 to replace older buses with cleaner options. This study evaluates how effective this program was.
Methods
We used a randomized approach to assess the impacts of the EPA’s School Bus Rebate Program on:
- School attendance
- Educational achievement
- Emergency department visits for respiratory issues
- Community air pollution levels
We compared data from school districts that received funding to those that did not, focusing on changes in the outcomes before and after the funding was allocated.
Results
Out of 3,019 applications, 406 were funded. The districts selected for funding had similar characteristics to those not selected. The districts that replaced older buses showed:
- 0.45 percentage points increase in attendance (equivalent to 45 more students attending each day in an average district of 10,000 students)
- 0.06 standard deviation increase in reading and language arts scores
- 0.03 standard deviation increase in math scores
- 1.0 µg/m³ decrease in harmful PM2.5 pollution levels
Replacing buses from before 1990 showed the most significant improvements, while newer buses had little effect. Although some districts replacing older buses saw higher emergency department visits, these findings were not conclusive.
Conclusion
Our analysis suggests that the EPA’s investment in replacing very old school buses has positively impacted communities. The $27 million investment could potentially lead to $350 million in benefits each year. Further investments to replace all buses older than 1990 could yield an additional $400 million annually, and replacing all buses older than 2000 could lead to $1.3 billion annually.
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