BY JIMMY LAWTONNorth Country This Week

Senators Mark Walczyk and Dan Stec are calling on Governor Hochul to cover the costs school districts face to convert their bus fleets to all-electric, or to scrap the mandates all together. 

They aren’t not alone. Many state representatives have raised concerns that the electric bus mandate is moving too fast.  

“School leaders I'm talking to are concerned about making up for the education gap shutdowns left behind, enrollment decline, quality instruction, and educating the next generation of leaders and employees," Walczyk said. "Nobody wants battery-buses. Nobody asked for battery-buses. Nobody thinks the Governor's battery-bus plan is based in reality."

In March Lisbon Central School saw a project that would have modernized the bus garage fail. Superintendent Patrick Farrand said he believes that was in part due to the state push toward electric buses.

Ogdensburg Superintendent Kevin Kendall has also expressed concerns about the viability of the electric buses in the North Country.

Cold weather and the geography of St. Lawrence County’s rural districts present challenges for electric buses due to the distance traveled in routes.

Batteries used in the vehicles are less efficient in cold weather. 

However the state has mandated that schools begin working toward converting their fleets to electric models, despite those concerns as well as the area's aging powergrid.

As part of the ’22-’23 State Budget language was included that requires new bus purchases be zero emission by 2027 for all schools across the state and all school buses be zero emission by 2035.

  According to the US Department of Energy, a new, fully electric school bus can cost roughly $400,000, which is triple the price of an average school bus, which is approximately $130,000.   

Walczyk says that schools across the 49th Senate District will have a difficult time footing the bill for this mandate.  NYSERDA estimates show that there’s 45,000 school buses in New York, which translates to a $20 billion price tag for converting every bus in every school district across the state by the 2035 deadline.   

“At a time when rural, upstate schools could use more funding to focus on educational services, this expensive mandate would raise taxes and divert resources away from students,” said Stec. “Green initiatives are laudable, but the electric bus mandate runs counter to the realities our schools face. Instead of requirements that have a detrimental impact on both our schools and taxpayers, the governor should either lift this mandate or allocate enough funding in next year’s budget to cover the $20 billion it is expected to cost to convert the 45,000 school buses in operation statewide,” Stec said.