One in every nine children in Maricopa County is asthmatic. The Arizona county, home to Phoenix, has some of the most polluted air in the country. At least 13 percent of Maricopa residents under 65 lack health insurance; 12 percent of the county’s population lives in poverty. But Maricopa is also home to the state’s first 84-seat electric school bus.

That’s in large part thanks to community organizer Teo Argueta and a group of local moms. Organizing with Chispa Arizona, a program of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) based in Phoenix that seeks to build political power in Latino communities, Argueta worked with Cartwright Elementary School District mothers and other community members to push through the passage of a school bond last year that would help underwrite the bus in question.

When the bond passed and the district secured a matching federal grant, Cartwright was able to finance the purchase. “It was hard,” said Cartwright Superintendent LeeAnn Aguilar-Lawlor. “But there was never a time where we said we’re not going to make this happen.” The school district plans to put the zero-emissions bus into action this fall, when students head back to in-person classes.

Read the full article about electric school buses in Maricopa County at Grist.