After protest chants of “I can’t breath!,” have faded from our streets, we can look at another important social and equity issue:
Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) affecting millions of students in our schools.
For decades, schools–especially schools in low income districts–have been failing to provide students with the level of air quality which we expect in businesses, offices and government buildings.
Too many of our children are stuck in old schools with either no air conditioning or antiquated systems (think rusty window units) which fail to provide the ventilation, purification, and temperature control required to create healthy and productive classroom environments.
The air, ain’t fair.
This lack of air quality in poor schools is particularly egregious since students in low income areas are far more likely to have childhood asthma which can be aggravated by poor air quality at their school. Children in Baltimore are twice as likely to have childhood asthma than the state average.
Why does that matter?
Asthma is the leading health cause of missed school days in Baltimore.
Right now, we can create real and lasting improvements in the health and learning of our children by investing infrastructure and educational funding to improve the air quality at our schools.
At the federal level, we should demand federal infrastructure funding to achieve ASHRAE standards or above for IAQ in every school. We should advocate for funding of the EPA, and specifically for increased funding
for the Tools For Schools program which promotes improved air quality for our schools through education and partnerships with schools.
At the state level, we need to continue to pressure the state and school districts to provide funding for schools so every school meets ASHRAE standards for Indoor Air Quality.
Healthy air and comfortable classrooms improve student performance and reduce health related absences. This should be a priority and provided by the state in accordance with Maryland’s constitutional requirement to educate our children. Want better test scores? Improve the conditions that affect the health and learning of students. IAQ is a great place to start.
School districts should use their funds wisely and expediently to improve IAQ at their schools.
They should invest in proven technologies including HVAC systems, filtration systems and
stand alone air purifiers, not chemical or plasma systems which pose dangers to students.
They should monitor and post IAQ data for their schools and use the Tools for Schools program to
reduce harmful chemicals, pests and asthma triggers from their schools. Importantly, they should
hold more classes, lunches and recesses outside, where the air quality is often far better than indoors.
Shan Gordon, Well AP, LEED O+M.
Shan has engaged students in Baltimore in studying and improving the environmental conditions at their schools. He is always impressed with the students and depressed by the conditions at their schools.
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