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Boston to roll out 20 electric school buses this fall as part of push to electrify entire fleet by 2030
By adamg on Wed, 04/06/2022 - 12:37pm
Mayor Wu announced a pilot this fall in which 20 buses that now run on diesel fuel will be replaced by buses that run on rechargeable batteries.
Along with the project, Boston Public Works and Madison Park High School will start a new program to train students there how to maintain battery buses.
The city will use Covid-19 recovery funds from the federal government to buy the initial new buses. The city currently has 739 school buses, some of which now run on propane, also a fossil fuel, but one the city results in fewer hydrocarbon emissions than traditional diesel buses.
Propane bus technology offers lower air pollution than diesel buses, and transitioning from diesel to propane has provided opportunities to navigate fleet management for vehicles that have limited re-fueling points, priming BPS's ability to work with electric school buses that may have range limitations that affect route assignments. Electrification will eliminate tailpipe emissions, address air quality and noise concerns around school pick-up and drop-off, offer a healthier work environment for bus drivers and monitors, and potentially offer cost savings over the entire bus life cycle.
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Comments
Terrific news.
Now hire more drivers so kids can get to and from school.
Shipping kids all over the city isn't going away
So might as well be green about it.
It should go away
The only way to have a solid school that is not based around private income is to make it based around a neighborhood. If education was the top priority, this would be realized.
I always thought it was messed up that we raise the exhaust pipe on the buses for adults but keep it within choking distance of children’s faces for school buses.
Yup
I agree, but it continues regardless of citizens opinions.
Our School system is an embarrassment.
When my youngest was in k to 6 she took a bus to southie and kids she knew from southie took a bus to to Dorchester . It makes no sense.
Reply
That's how it was when they started busing - I see half the buses empty now all coming and going from the same school - it makes no sense - why doesn't the city spend the money on some programs or something that would make the schools safer instead of always hearing about fights, and teachers getting beat up, heads in toilets (I know that wasn't Boston) but the schools sounds worse now than when everyone thought they were bad during busing.
Please explain
How do we get desegregated schools?
Who pays to construct schools in walk districts?
What traffic calming measures do you agree to not fight so kids can safely walk to neighborhood schools?
Bear in mind that the state demands at least 5 acres for an elementary school, and it has to be accessible.
There is a reason kids get bused around - resource management. If you don't like it, see above as to why.
Boston will never desegregate
Boston will never desegregate schools.
Segregation is the feature.
Boston Latin is the showcase.
BPS had schools in walking distance
It closed them as enrollment declined due to piss poor quality and in part busing.
I was bussed from Roslindale to Dot for 5 years. I could have received the same shitty education in my own neighborhood.
Schools
The more important question is how do we get good schools overall so people can attend schools near to where they live. The recipe for a strong public school is strong neighborhood and parent (caregiver) involvement. I understand the importance of desegregation but this ship has sailed here in Boston. Schools continue to fail and it needs to be addressed immediately.
If you’ve noticed the growing sea change in education, you will have read that many people are saying students now need to be educated by people that look like themselves (this is nonsense and demeaning). Where does this leave the desegregation initiative if we are dividing classrooms and teachers?
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/09/29/552929074/if-your-teacher-loo...
There is also this:
“Despite gains made in the 1970s and ’80s to desegregate schools, a series of court rulings ending mandatory desegregation programs have resulted in growing numbers of segregated schools.
A study from the Civil Rights Project found that the number of schools in which students of color make up 90 percent or more of the student population has tripled since 1988.”
Boston has been doing the opposite and schools are still quite segregated if you look at the details. Many parents say they know “the good schools” when they go for the lottery and segregation continues for those who are out of that loop.
There is money that can be allocated for fixing schools or buildings to provide proper structure. I don’t think money is the issue here.
Regarding walking, schools would be safer with more walkers. Not everyone takes the bus and it would cut down on the massive amounts of car pick up traffic that happens at some schools around 3:00 everyday.
well
i have a kid that will be school age in the next few months and i’d like her to have teachers that look like her. i *don’t* think it’s nonsense or demeaning to want that, so where does that leave us?
Of course, you can think that but it’s not equal
We likely agree on this but it gets lost in nuances. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a diversified teaching force or classroom, I am saying all these studies only point out certain groups of people, as if they needed special treatment to learn the same thing as somebody else. This is infantilizing, also demeaning. They say nothing of Asian students needing people that look like them to teach them, and yet they are the highest performing demographic in many, if not all categories. They also say nothing of immigrants with language barriers that still end up successful, regardless of what their teachers “looked” like. They continually single out only some people and do not apply this science to the overall human species. It’s borderline racist policy similar to lowering achievement standards for certain groups or regions. Education is a balance of creating high standards while building a balanced work ethic to create a recipe for success. The student must be molded to meet the challenges of the world, not the world molding to meet the challenges of the student. That method will not breed independent success. It just won’t. The naturally smart, high achievers will continue to do well while everyone else gets left in the dust. I’m watching it in real time. Wait until your kid starts school…
you’ve touched on a lot
and i won’t lie, it’s very difficult to parse what you’ve said since you’ve presented several ideas and included very few paragraph breaks.
what you’ve said does seem to outline the kind of general anecdotal sentiment that people who oppose things like affirmative action or welfare seem to espouse. ex. what about the immigrants? things worked out well for them! well, as a first-generation American, i think i need a citation for that claim.
anyway, these are ideas that fly directly in the face of research like that which was conducted in the NPR link you posted. saying that to say, im not sure how fruitful any further conversation will be.
i think it boils down to this: everyone agrees that there’s an achievement gap. so is there a problem with black kids? or is there a problem with the system that educates black kids? i believe every kid is the same, more importantly they should be educated as such.
We both want quality education for all
The paragraphs don’t always show without an added space. I’ll try to remember that.
I’ve always supported affirmative action and welfare programs and things that exist to help anyone in need. I’m not talking about these things, I am talking about education. When something continues to fail, it should continue to be examined.
I brought up immigrants that succeed because I think it can help shed an important light on the issue. People who move here from other countries often have strong family ties that help breed success. A child that has two parents or extended family that can read to them at a young age will always do better in school than a child who does not have this time spent with them. It is a long, slow, arduous process that lays the foundation for the ability to learn and process information. By age 5, the gaps are already there between the kids who have done this and those who have not. So I do think this is a problem that goes beyond just what happens at school.
A better thing to focus on would be how do we get working parents more time to spend with their kids. This is partially why I think neighborhood based schools would be better because it allows families more flexibility with time management.
I included the npr article because it should make you question the validity of such studies when the title included the word “may” and an expert later rebukes the study by saying what we really need is just better teachers who see their students as “whole people.” Now that is true.
The fact of the matter is, it is impossible to add preferences for one group or race of people without deliberately excluding another. Acting like this, by it’s very nature, is to act in an exclusionary manner that is not all inclusive based on the achievements of those involved. This will likely go to the Supreme Court.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/harvard-asian-enrollment-applicant...
You even say in your last sentence that every kid is the same and should be educated as such. That means they should all be able to learn from identical looking robots and it shouldn’t make a difference. I’m telling you. It starts and ends at home. Schools alone cannot fix this issue. I have met plenty of parents who would die by the sword of public schooling and the status quo and yet still supplement their children’s education with extra math classes, tutors, and extracurricular activities, all of which cost money.
well
for one, they use the word “may” in research because science doesn’t assume an observation is universally true. take from that what you will.
the other thing is that the “whole child” statement wasn’t a rebuke of the study, it was an affirmation. the idea is that because of unique experiences, a homogeneous teaching force (read: largely white women) is not properly equipped to educate students who hail from disparate cultures. this is not an indictment on white women! it doesn’t make them bad teachers, it just means we need a more diverse teaching force, full stop.
a few other observations:
i agree with this, and it starts with things like expanded paid parental leave, shorter work weeks, government assistance, and more equitable salaries for low wage workers. however, i don’t see this as mutually exclusive from the need for a more diverse teaching force.
this is true only if you pretend that america’s institutions treat everyone equitably already. this is very obviously untrue, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about this!
there is a benefit to that conceit though: if you follow that logic all the way through and we stop focusing on racism, then we are left with the idea that every child who succeeds has done so on their own merits. ditto for those who fail. pretty convenient, right?
Thank you for honest chat
I think teachers have come a long way in behavior interpretation and how to respond properly in the classroom, but there is always more work to be done.
Shorter work weeks and government assistance are very different things. If we want the people of the future to have a shorter work week, we will have to continue to be smarter about how society functions, which will take intelligent, hard working, and efficient people. A lifetime of government assistance does not incentivize these things. Humans are still human and are motivated by incentives, not hand outs.
I still support government assistance programs but if you look at the numbers they are not working. Since you are making this about Black and White people, we will look at those two incomes. The incomes of Black vs White families had decreased from 61.5% to 54.8% from 1970 to 1993. Today it stands around 60%, even after Clinton’s “welfare reform.”
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/yi/yi16.pdf
I am aware of American history and it’s implications on the present. I also realize the sons of CEO’s and the like all have a leg up on everyone else and we can categorize privilege from there using every identity check box in the book.
This breaking down of people into who is more privileged only creates a victimhood mentality and does not breed overall success. It causes one to think they need outside help to better their life and the lives of those around them when the exact opposite is true. Short of mental handicap, everyone has the power within themselves in a free country to be successful. Telling students otherwise is a total disservice and detrimental to their mental health.
Meanwhile, the Asian demographic is leaving all others in the dust. What does this say about your theory that people need to be educated by those similar to themselves?
https://www.epi.org/blog/racial-disparities-in-income-and-poverty-remain...
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/07/12/income-inequality-i...
The issue right now comes down to equity vs equality. You want equity, which to achieve, involves discrimination against others. The people you are now looking to discriminate against are not even White, they are Asian.
Most wholistic research
Most wholistic research suggests there's a problem with the way American society treats and has treated black kids and families, way before they even get to school. Generational poverty, generational trauma and a pervasive and violent culture of racism doesn't wait until these kids are going to kindergarten to affect things like: spoken language fluency and number of words exposed to regularly, familiarity with the alphabet and basic literacy concepts, emotional self regulation in an unfamiliar environment, trust in authority figures and the fairness of the system, nutritional parity (can't learn when you're hungry), etc, etc, etc.
Some of this the schools can and should be addressing, and having diverse teachers and leaders is more than "looks like them" - it's about building a system where the people making decisions have lived experiences that give them an understanding of where the students are coming from, an understanding of different family and cultural behaviors that white teachers might mark as disruptive but are just DIFFERENT, being able to provide a role model and example of a successful/educated person from the same background, etc.
But ultimately the education gap is never going to really and truly change when the expectation is 100% on the schools to fix something that is a result of the wider world.
this is great
i understood that “looks like them” is a pretty heavy oversimplication. i was just responding to a comment.
i’d like her to have teachers
It's understandable to want that, but also racist to want that.
its understandable that you think that
but that’s not what racism is.
If someone said
I'd like my child to attend a school with kids who look like her. What would most people call that?
A teachers looks have nothing to do with their teaching abilities and saying a kid needs a teacher who looks like they do makes no sense to me, a good teacher is a good teacher, get rid of the bad teachers and keep the good ones, no matter what they look like.
okay
i disagree with you.
perhaps you think i said that i want my kid to only have black teachers.
You didn't say you want a great teacher
You said "teachers who look like her"
I'm positive you want your child to have a great teacher but wanting the teacher to look like her makes no sense to me..
when you hire a therapist
or any medical professional, is it racist to seek to hire someone who can identify with you a little more closely?
Kind of
If a white person said they will only go to a white doctor it would make me roll my eyes a bit.
flattening context
a white person would have no problem finding a white doctor in the northeast, or anywhere in the united states. it’s just not something they have to deal with.
The problem isn't finding a doctor
The problem is saying the doctor has to look like them , it's putting what they look like above their experience.
I am mixed race and if I said I'd prefer to see a doctor who looks like me, it should make anyone roll their eyes who heard me say it.
why do you think it has to be “above”?
why can’t it just be one of the criteria for my search?
I guess it doesn't to some
If ones race is a criteria in seeking a medical professional, I suppose they will answer over the phone what they look like or may have a picture on their website.
Over $14 million
for busing and kids have bathrooms with piss on the floor and no toilet paper or soap.
Here’s an idea
How about ending the policy of putting kids on buses and sending them across town to more substandard schools?
Excellent, improve the busses
Excellent, improve the busses, and ignore the condition of the schools. Oh well, at least BPS will be fashionable.
I bet…
I bet either gas or electric…… They’ll still be consistently late to pick up kids.
Electric is better.
But a walkable city is best.
In Japan and Iceland and other countries, young children take public transportation on their own. I wish I saw more of that here.
Though Boston did have a dog that rode the Blue Line regularly on its own.