In the past year, 2 studies have been published that show that cleaner school buses improve students’ health and academic performance (test scores). Another study showed that general air pollution affects student test scores.
From Harvard, a study evaluated health and environmental cost benefits of replacing an average diesel school bus. They also looked at replacing diesel buses from 2005 or older. Replacing an average diesel school bus gave $84,000 in savings per bus. This came from $44,000 in savings for improved health (fewer children with asthma, fewer deaths in the community) and $40,000 from reducing climate change. Replacing a bus from 2005 in a large city would provide $207,000 in health benefits per bus. Because the health benefits are for the community in general as well as students, it makes sense to help fund school transportation from general community, state, or federal budgets.
From the University of Michigan, a study found that districts that received funding from EPA to replace very old 1990-era school buses with cleaner school buses had improved reading and math scores for students in the district. They did not compare electric buses to diesel, but newer cleaner buses to very old diesel buses. The same researchers also did a different study that found that replacing dirty school buses with cleaner school buses improved attendance, especially for students with asthma.
A study from Yale of students in North Carolina and outdoor air pollution from Yale showed that every 1μg/m3 decrease in PM2.5 levels improved math scores by 0.009755 standard deviation, and improved reading test scores by 0.009755 standard deviation. A news story about the study from a station in Durham NC noted that a school in Durham that got electric school buses had improved attendance, which could be part of the reason for improved test scores. We know that diesel school buses make significant amounts of PM2.5.
Remember this study from Georgia State that showed that cleaner school buses improved student test scores and student aerobic scores on the FitnessGram. Better FitnessGram scores means students’ lungs were damaged enough they couldn’t run as fast.
All of these studies show the benefit of clean school buses. Because electric school buses are so new, they haven’t been studied yet. But we expect them to be the best since they have no tailpipe pollution.
Read about the Harvard study on cost benefits in School Transportation News.
Read the Harvard Study in PNAS.
Read about the University of Michigan Study on academic performance here.
Read the University of Michigan Study in JAMA Network Open.
Read about the Yale study in NC at the news station website.
Read the Yale study in JAMA Network Open.
08/28/2024 AKMB
