| Funds are
first distributed in proportion to the number of residents
within each county. School Districts in the county of Los
Angeles receive about 61 percent, Orange county receive18 percent, San Bernardino
county receive 11 percent, and Riverside county receive 10
percent. LA Unified School District, the largest
school district in the AQMD jurisdiction, is restricted to a
maximum of 50 percent of the total funds distributed to Los
Angeles County, or roughly 30 percent.
Additional
funding criteria are as follows:
Disproportionate Impact Areas
Assembly Bill 1390 (Firebaugh), approved
by the State legislature, and signed into law by Governor
Davis requires that at least 50 percent of the School Bus
funds be allocated in communities that suffer
disproportionately greater exposure to poor air quality.
These include communities that are low-income and/or ethnic
minority communities.
To implement standards of AB
1390, AQMD evaluates qualified projects in
disproportionately impacted communities, according to the
following criteria:
Poverty Level
Projects in communities with at least 10 percent
of the population below the federal poverty level based on
the year 2000 census data, and
PM Exposure
Projects in communities with the highest 15
percent of PM concentration. The highest 15 percent of PM
concentration is 46 micrograms per cubic meter and above, on
a federal annual average, or
Toxic Exposure
Projects in communities with a cancer risk of 1,000 in a
million and above.
Other projects will be ranked on a cost-effective basis,
with the most cost-effective vehicles and equipment
receiving the highest priority
Data for the poverty level and
PM and toxic exposures were obtained from the U.S. Census,
the 1998 AQMD monitoring data and Mates II study,
respectively.
Disproportionate Impact Mapping
The map below illustrates the
areas eligible for disproportionate impact funding. All the
areas illustrated in the map have poverty level of 10% or
above, and either high cancer risk or PM exposure or both.
The areas with a cancer risk of 1,000 in a million and above
are in gold; the areas with the highest 15% of PM exposure
are in gray; and the areas with both the highest 15% of PM
and a cancer risk of 1,000 in a million and above are in
orange. This map forms the basis upon which School Bus funds
were awarded.
Please click to see a larger view of this map
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