By: Chispa promotoras Elsa Vergas and Adriana (last name withheld), as told to the Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
The opinions shared in this piece are those of the speaker and/or the person being featured in the story. They do not necessarily reflect those of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.
Baltimore City faces significant environmental hazards, particularly related to air pollution and industrial contamination. The city’s legacy of heavy industry, including steel manufacturing, shipping, and waste incineration, has contributed to poor air quality and elevated levels of harmful pollutants like particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone.
Parts of Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties face similar problems with air pollution and industrial emissions. High levels of ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter, often from traffic pollution and industrial facilities, spike rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. These environmental burdens are particularly concerning in lower-income areas, where pollution sources are more concentrated, asthma rates tend to be higher, and there is less access to healthcare.
For children in these counties, getting to and from school has exacerbated these issues. When a child’s only reliable way to get to school is by diesel bus, their exposure to harmful air pollutants is unavoidable, aggravating asthma and increasing lifetime risks of cancer and heart disease.
Image by Chispa LCV. https://chispalcv.org/clean-buses-for-healthy-ninos/
Elsa Vergas, a mother in Montgomery County, expressed her anguish at sending her asthmatic daughter to school in diesel buses:
“En los autobuses escolares los contaminantes del diésel se concentran dentro de la cabina y los niños pueden estar expuestos hasta 15 veces más del nivel de diesel que alguien que viaja en un automóvil. Mi hija padece asma, y exponerla a la contaminación de diesel en los autobuses escolares es perjudicial para su salud.”
“[In school buses, the contamination from diesel concentrates inside the bus and kids can be exposed to up to 15 times the amount of diesel than from being inside a car. My daughter has asthma, and the exposure of diesel contamination in those school buses is harmful to her health]”
Elsa noticed her daughter’s ride to school would trigger her symptoms and, in some cases, cause her to miss school. This isn’t unique to Elsa or her daughter—school districts that replaced or retrofitted highly-polluting schoolbusses were found to have significantly higher attendance rates than those that did not. Higher attendance is strongly tied to better grades and higher academic achievement, meaning that diesel exposure could be impacting the broader academic performance of students.
Diesel school buses don’t just affect the health and success of children; they also disproportionately harm Black and Latino communities as a whole and increase climate change-accelerating emissions. Adriana, a Prince George’s County community member and mother of an asthmatic son, recognized that families like hers who live in communities most impacted by contamination, extreme heat, and lack of access to green spaces suffer more from the impacts of diesel pollution and climate change.
Adriana and Elsa knew there had to be other ways to get their children to school. So, they began organizing with Clean Buses for Healthy Niños, a campaign led by Chispa Maryland, to replace diesel buses with electric ones. Not only would electric buses reduce the emissions harming children and surrounding communities, but they would also contribute to the necessary transition away from fossil fuels.
Promotoras and students testifying at the Baltimore City Board of Education, urging the city to direct funding to electric school buses. Image by Chispa Maryland (February, 2025).
By connecting with other community members, testifying at multiple Board of Education meetings, and speaking to state and local officials, they were able to amplify their voices and make sure their stories were heard. Their grassroots organizing led to Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) commitment to go all electric in 2021 and contributed to the passing of the Clean Trucks Act in 2023, requiring the sale of new zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles, including buses.
Yet the fight continues, as MCPS has since reversed its 2021 commitment. Adriana and Elsa continue to work closely with Chispa Maryland to deploy more electric school buses and reduce traffic pollution to protect their kids. Their persistence is a reminder that community advocacy doesn’t end with one victory—it requires sustained collective action to achieve real decision-making power. You can join them by supporting the Clean Buses for Healthy Niños campaign here and signing up for Maryland LCV’s email list to stay updated.
Promotoras with Senator Smith and Delegate Charkoudian of Montgomery County, advocating for climate policies. Image by Chispa Maryland (February 16, 2025).
Learn more about Maryland LCV Education Fund’s work on Electric School Buses HERE.
And read about some of Chispa’s other advocacy work HERE.