“We’re excited that there is a push to become greener, to improve air quality in our area,” Thomas said.

This means the contractor would be the one to benefit from money that was supposed to help the district, he said. After that, if the district’s contract with the bus company were to end, the contractor would get to keep the clean-energy buses, Thomas said.

The EPA requires private contractors that get clean-energy buses through the program to serve the district listed on the application for the next five years. This led it to ultimately decide not to apply for the program, Thomas said. However, the scrappage requirement prevented the district from doing so. “This was a prime opportunity for us to have some leverage to help balance the cost of providing transportation services to our families.” “With shortages, with Covid and things of that nature, we have very little leverage in negotiating costs of those services,” Thomas said. He said the district was hoping to use funds from the program to purchase their own buses. Thomas said the requirement disproportionately impacts low-income school districts like District 227 that don’t have the funds to buy their own buses. The scrappage requirement also prevents districts from using program funds to transition to owning their own buses. Superintendent Johnnie Thomas said it’s unfair to force districts like his to rely on the agreement of an outside entity in order to be allowed to apply for funding. Districts in this situation have to get their contractor to agree to scrap the replaced buses.

Located in the south suburbs of Chicago, the district contracts with a private company to bus its students. Rich Township High School District 227 is one of these school districts. “These schools, regardless of their interest in the program or commitment to improving air quality for their students, are barred from funding to decarbonize their fleets,” the letter said. In June, 14 members of Congress from Illinois sent a letter to the EPA complaining that several Chicago-area school districts, including Proviso, Rich Township, Lindop, Prairie Hills and Waukegan, weren’t able to participate in the program because of the scrappage requirement.

Peters township power school