It is something that continues to be proven over and over again: Democrats come up with goofy ideas but can only see them “working” in the here and now. They are incapable of seeing those ideas implemented beyond next week. We have all been treated to hearing endlessly about Vice President Kamala Harris’ favorite things, Venn diagrams, and electric school buses. But one super-blue county is experiencing this lack of foresight regarding one of those favs of the VP firsthand, and it is costing taxpayers a lot of money and is coming at the expense of the county’s students.
The Montgomery County, Maryland Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report last month that showed that the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) push to use electric school buses in the district resulted in what was deemed millions of dollars in “wasteful spending” due to several operational issues with the buses. The MCPS’s experience with electric school buses is illustrative of most things touted by Democrats and the left included in the Green New Deal.
The whole boondoggle began in February of 2021 when the district decided to replace 326 diesel buses with electric buses as part of a sustainability initiative. The grand total for taxpayers for these new buses: around $170 million. What did taxpayers get for their money? The buses were not delivered to the district on time, and there were continual mechanical issues. Because of this, the district was forced to partially revert to the diesel buses, but because there were not enough of the old buses, the report showed that the district was forced to spend an additional $14 million on extra diesel buses to compensate for the inoperable electric buses.
The OIG report continued, saying that many of the electric buses were unusable for prolonged periods, and concluded that “MCPS should have assessed the [electric bus] contractor approximately $372,000 for failing to provide serviceable buses between FYs 2022 and 2024.” The now-former MCPS Superintendent (wonder why?) Dr. Monifa McKnight was totally on board with electric school buses. During a 2022 press conference, she claimed “We are going to be saving upwards of 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel per day. Immediately this is going to cut costs by 50%.”
must.protect.identity.of.[electric.bus.]contractor…..FISKAR? lather, rinse, repeat….