Environmental educational programs in Chile: Do the characteristics of local governments affect school participation?

Abstract

Tackling environmental problems is one of the main policy challenges facing governments. The process of forming attitudes starts at a young age, and is mostly shaped by education. Participation in pro-environmental initiatives at schools is mainly voluntary. Local governments can play an important role as the institution that links communities with the environment. In this paper, we examine the role of local governments/municipalities on school participation in an environmental educational program, with a special focus on primary and secondary education. We use data from the Sustainable School Program in Chile. We model schools’ participation and level of participation by an ordered probit model with sample selection. Results show that public schools are more likely to participate in the program compared with private schools, and schools with more teachers reveal a higher probability of being part of the program. In addition, while school performance and teachers’ perceptions correlate with achieving higher levels of certification, a more intense commitment to the program is more likely in communes whose local authorities have the capacity to promote voluntary financial and environmental initiatives. Thus, in order to promote successful co-management of environmental policy, local governments should take into account the heterogeneity of the school system.

Keywords:

• environmental education
• local governments
• voluntary environmental programs
• schools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 An example of this is the plastic bag ban, whose national law was enacted in response to many voluntary local initiative (Ministry of Environment, 2018).

2 The Chilean educational system comprises four levels: (i) pre-school (children up to 5 years old), (ii) primary school (children aged 6-14 years old, divided in 8 grades), (ii) secondary school (children aged 15-18 years old, divided in 4 grades), and (iv) high school. The Sustainable School Program targets two educational levels: primary and secondary school, which is somewhat comparable (but not equivalent) to the K-12 system in place in some countries.

3 Null hypothesis for Moran I test: Not spatial dependence. P-value for the Moran I test: 0.0000.

4 The Chilean educational system offers a good setting to understand the extent to which the behavior of schools may relate to that of private businesses. This system has been shown to generate a profound socioeconomic stratification in educational achievement and inequality (Torche, 2005; Mizala and Torche, 2012; Zancajo, 2019). These differences are mainly due to the way schools are administered and their underlying objectives. Private-paid schools may have economic goals in addition to the provision of education and promotion of civic and environmental value. In such case, participation in pro-environmental programs can be understood as an instrument to improve their reputation (and enrolment) through the contribution to local environmental problems. Public schools, on the other hand, are mainly devoted to the provision of local public goods, including environmental and ecological considerations. Finally, private-voucher schools share features of private and public schools.

5 The Green Power Partnership (GPP) was created in 2001, with the objective of protecting human health and the environment by increasing organizations’ voluntary green power use. In return for technical assistance and recognition, Partners commit to use green power for all, or a portion, of their annual electricity consumption (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2021).

6 Related programs supporting environmental education in Chile include the Sustainable Campus Network of Higher Education Institutions in Chile (SCN) (https://redcampussustentable.cl/), and the Metropolitan Technological University. Other initiatives promoted by relevant stakeholders include the Global Network of Pact for Plastics (for more information visit www. https://fch.cl/iniciativa/nueva-economia-de-los-plasticos/).

7 Although the level of human capital and professionalization in the commune is a desirable condition for a carefully assessment and prioritization of environmental policies at the commune level, the major’s choice also depends on other factors such as popularity, closeness with the electorate, media influence, among other things that are unrelated with her capabilities as policymaker. Thus, it is likely this proxy may not fully capture the primary aspects of interest. Notwithstanding this situation, because these capabilities are not observed, the inclusion of this proxy allows to partially control for this desired feature of local management.

8 This variable was built with information from the 2017 Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (CASEN, by its Spanish acronym). The poverty rate corresponds to the percentage of the population with incomes less than the poverty line. According to CEPAL (2018), the monthly income of the poverty line was $158,145 in 2017; that is the equivalent to US$202.75 per month, or US$6.76 daily. (Rate of conversion 1 CLP ($) = 780 USD).

9 To explore correlations among explanatory variables, we show the correlation matrix in Appendix 1. With the exception of some excludible categories, results show a low degree of linear association among variables which is not strong enough to worry about potential multicollinearity problems.