The role of public transit in school choice and after-school activity participation among Toronto high school students

Abstract

Transportation plays a growing role in the ability of students to access educational opportunities as communities continue to sprawl and school systems diversify students’ school attendance options. This study models the impacts of household transportation resources on two education related outcomes: after-school activity participation and attendance at a non-local high school. We model after-school activity participation across the Greater Toronto Area through probit regression, identifying a significant effect of public transit accessibility on a high school student’s likelihood of participating in an after-school activity. We conduct a similar analysis predicting the likelihood that a student attends a non-local high school in the City of Toronto, wherein over 60% of students attend one of several alternatives to local designated high schools. Finally, we conduct a biprobit Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) on both variables to account for unobserved student and household characteristics that influence both outcomes. Our results highlight a significantly positive association between transit accessibility and students’ participation in after-school activities. We identify a weakly significant association between transit accessibility and attending non-local schools. We contend that while transportation resources may not be the most significant factors influencing these outcomes, transportation plays a significant enough role in students’ lives to warrant thoughtful attention by policymakers.