Bus Air Conditioners 2.01.2019
(pdf)
For Immediate Release
Contact: Senator Jeff Steinborn, (575) 635-5615
BILL TO REQUIRE AIR CONDITIONERS ON SCHOOL BUSES PASSES SEC
A bill that would require air conditioners on school buses, especially those that operate in the hotter regions of the state, passed the Senate Education Committee on Friday morning.
Senate Bill 321, School Bus Air Conditioners, would require that all “school buses purchased after July 1, 2019, whether district-owned or contractor-owned, shall be equipped with air conditioning if they are operated in school districts in which temperatures are regularly high enough to pose a risk to students riding in a school bus without air conditioning.”
The bill, sponsored by Senator Jeff Steinborn, D, District 36, Doña Ana, would provide $1.5 million to the state Public Education Department to require that new buses being purchased come equipped with air conditioners in hotter parts of the state, as well as provide funding to retrofit buses already in use. The bill would also determine seating capacities on the transport vehicles as well. The PED is tasked to establish rules for the program.
“There are some parts of the state that experience extremely hot temperatures and it is very important that we protect our school children and those who drive them,” said Senator Steinborn. “I have been working to fix this issue for years and this legislation hopefully will start to address it.”
The Senate bill now heads to the Senate Finance Committee because it entails an appropriation.
“Not having air conditioning in school buses on very hot day is paramount to child neglect,” says Marcos Torres, a school bus driver in Las Cruces who is also the president of the Las Cruces Transportation Federation of School Bus Drivers and Attendants, “We have to protect our students and our drivers.”
Torres added that he’s experienced temperatures in Las Cruces as high as 114 degrees in a school bus while driving children and that it is especially worrisome because the heat can adversely affect the driver as well as the children.
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