Climate Change Is Making U.S. Classrooms Overheat – Frustrated By That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Apparently the Southern schools were equipped with air conditioning, but in Philadelphia and Baltimore the schools couldn’t afford a bit of insulation and some air conditioning.

Climate change forces schools to close early because of ‘hot days’

No air conditioning and no installation money, districts will send students home

Via Laura Meckler and
Anna Phillips
June 4, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Temperatures continue to rise in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Finally, it was too hot to keep students in classrooms without air conditioning. On Tuesdays, both systems let students out early.

For Principal Richard M. Gordon IV, it was just another early summer day in his West Philadelphia high school dormitory, where sweltering heat, high humidity and lack of ventilation made classrooms uncomfortable students cannot sit still.

“Can I honestly say that effective learning is happening in my building? I can’t,” said Gordon, principal of Paul Robeson High School.

Climate change poses a growing threat to American schools. Areas where extreme heat was rare in the past – from the Northeast to Pacific Northwest – now periodically find their buildings unbearably hot as spring turns to summer and again when classes return in August or September.

In much of the South, air conditioning has long been a necessity, and schools are often equipped with centralized systems, although rising temperatures may require an upgrade.

But in places like Philadelphia, air conditioning was a luxury decades ago, when most school buildings were built. Perhaps there was a hot day in mid-June or an uncomfortably hot one in early September. They are flukes.

No more. In particular, urban areas tend to have a dangerous mix of older buildings, less money to upgrade them, and concentrated heat. Designed to maximize space in crowded environments, urban schools often lack green space and shade. Asphalt often covers their playgrounds and other open spaces, giving off heat during the summer.

…

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/04/school-heat-days-climate-change/

My first impulse was to accuse Principal Richard Gordon of being a useless teacher and making excuses, but in 2020, Principal Gordon received the “National Principal of the Year” award – so maybe the problem isn’t with him. And read the article carefully, Principal Gordon just said the classrooms are too hot – maybe the global warming claims were added to the story by the journalist. And to be fair, the pictures of the schools that I’ve seen, they look like ovens – bare brick sun-facing walls, no apparent attempt to cool down, nothing. limited by coating the wall with heat reflective paint.

That begs the question, of course – why can’t the schools of Baltimore and Philadelphia pay a little bit for building maintenance and air conditioning to make their students comfortable?

The article I quote shows that teachers are fed up with politics neglecting the needs of their students.

One possible reason for the lack of cash for schools is that the civic leaders of Baltimore and Philadelphia are too busy pouring money into fighting climate change to set aside some money to take care of the facilities. their crumbling education.

In January of this year, Mayor Brandon of Baltimore promised over $100 million by my count, to support the city’s net promotion. With a basic air conditioning system costing around $1000, that would be enough cash to install 100,000 air conditioners in Baltimore’s classrooms.

Philadelphia also commits to Net Zero by 2021. While the Philadelphia document doesn’t give budget figures, I think we can rest easy assuming Philadelphia is also wasting insane amounts of cash chasing the carbon demon, when they should be taking care. for your child’s educational institutions.

Maybe I misunderstood the situation, it seems like some complicated things are going on. There may be other problems that I’m not aware of. But from what I’ve read, if I were a voter in Baltimore or Philadelphia, I would ask my civic leaders to stop wasting money on “climate emergencies” and things like that. other great unrelated nonsense, at least until real problems like the poor state of their school districts and school buildings have been resolved.