By Keith Brown
As a member of the Environmental Conservation Committee, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our overall carbon footprint statewide is a top priority of mine, however, we must approach these goals in the right way. Fully implementing the Electric School Bus Mandate and imposing it on school districts throughout New York without proper financial support from the state is irresponsible and precludes from looking into alternative cheaper solutions.
Governor Hochul and the Democrat majority need to put our students first and provide the proper amount of state aid necessary to fully implement the Electric School Bus Mandate rather than directing $2.4 billion worth of state funding to support the migrant crisis in New York City. Further, if the long-term goal of this mandate is to be more environmentally responsible, converting to all-electric even with proper state aid might not be the right answer for schools in more rural regions of the state. As stated in a bill sponsored by fellow Assemblymember Robert Smullen (R,C-Mohawk Valley and the Adirondacks), promoting viable alternatives like carpooling with an approved network of parents for students in need has the potential for lowering carbon emissions on a smaller scale while maintaining transportation reliability for our students (A.8135). Innovative options like this should be considered rather than one-size-fits-all mandates.
It is not the responsibility of our school districts to be left to pick up the pieces after the state imposes a mandate that is not financially feasible. I will continue to speak out against this mandate until changes are made and our schools receive the support they need and deserve.
New York State Assemblyman Keith Brown (R,C-Northport) represents the 12th Assembly District, which includes parts of Suffolk County, encompassing the towns of Huntington, Babylon and Islip.