Texas Could Change School Calendar To Help Power Grid

A Texas lawmaker has suggested pushing back the start of the school year to reduce “awfully wasteful stress on (the state’s) power grid.”

Texas has long struggled with its power grid as a result of the extreme weather it experiences, older infrastructure and a rapidly growing population, among several other factors.

Republican State Representative Jared Patterson has suggested delaying the start of the school year so that kids are not returning to school in summer months when the buildings require more cooling.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on the weekend: “With 1,100 new residents daily and an ever-expanding economy, opening schools before Labor Day is an awfully wasteful stress on our power grid.

“Cooling thousands of buildings – often the largest buildings in a community – during the hottest months of the year makes no sense. Schools should be completely closed during July & August, saving taxpayer dollars on cooling expenses and our grid at the same time.”

Patterson finished the post with “#billideas,” suggesting this could be something he intends to pursue further when the state legislature reconvenes in January.

Newsweek has contacted Patterson, via email and voice message, for confirmation about a possible proposal and further comment.

The author of the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter, Doug Lewin, said that, as a father, he would appreciate the school year starting later than it does, but he is not totally convinced it would be a solution for Texas power grid issues.

He told the KXAN Austin, an NBC affiliate in the Texas capital: “As a parent of four children in Austin Independent School District, I would love for school to start after Labor Day.

“There’s a lot of reasons to maybe push the school year back. I don’t think the energy grid is on the list.”

He went on to argue that it would be more effective to help incentivize schools to install solar panels and battery storage on campuses, the idea being that these changes would help collect solar energy to ease the burden on the grid.

It comes as the Joe Biden administration granted the Austin Independent School District $15 million to pay for rooftop solar panels, the district announced on Monday.

This summer has seen Texas hit with scorching temperatures, sometimes putting intense pressure on the electric grid.

In July, Hurricane Beryl ripped through the state, knocking electricity out for nearly three million people at the height of the outages, according to the Associated Press.

A number of people, especially in Houston, went days without power during the sweltering temperatures.

Houston’s power utility CenterPoint, ended up apologizing to customers with Republican Governor Greg Abbott demanding answers from the company.