It's Hot in There!: Air Conditioning in Public Schools

By Cheryl Conrod

I read that public school classes were canceled in Cincinnati, Ohio, yesterday and today due to excessively high temperatures. I’m sure that these are not the only schools releasing students this week because of uncomfortable conditions in public school buildings. Millions of other students are sweating away in hot, stuffy classrooms. I would wager that the shut-down schools and thousands of others, both old and new, lack any form of air conditioning.

While serving on a citizen’s committee to win approval for a school bond in the rural Midwest, I was occasionally asked if the proposed school would be air conditioned. The explicit threat was, if the new school design included air conditioning, the referendum would be defeated. In order to get the school bond passed, we assured one and all that the new school would be heated only.

No one questions heating schools. No one wants the little kids to freeze to death at their desks. But most people we talked with were dead set against installing air cooling into the public schools. It was considered a frill. Why?

“Well, I went to school on hot, humid days, and I turned out all right,” was the overwhelming response.

“Why coddle those kids,” was another. “Sweating over one's studies builds character.”

In this day and age, I find it baffling that citizens--parents, grandparents, and non-parents--would wish to deny children a comfortable work environment. Children spend nearly half of their waking weekday hours, nine months each year, in school buildings. Would a retail store, doctor’s office waiting room, government office, or public library subject its customers to a hot, steamy environment? Do more than a few diehard motorists drive around on sticky summer days without air conditioning? Surely everyone is aware that physical discomfort interferes with productivity. Why would people insist on hobbling children’s learning in this way?

Some would argue that the expense is not justified since school is not in session during the summer. But we have begun to experience longer, hotter summers. Also the trend seems to be to start the school year ever earlier, especially in the Midwest.

Many school districts today get around this air conditioning bias by designing heating/cooling systems into the schools “at no extra expense.” Others build in geothermal systems which heat and cool the schools using passive designs. This justifies cooling classrooms with an environmental twist. But the anti-air-conditioning grumbling persists.

The United States has often been accused of being anti-intellectual and suspicious of education. But as President John Adams said, “The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people—and must be willing to bear the expense of it.” This expense should include creating a comfortable learning environment, including air conditioning where needed, for our public school students.

Cheryl Conrod is the author of The Winning School Bond: A Citizen's Guide to a Successful School Bond Campaign (ScarecrowEducation, 2002). She was co-chair of a successful school bond advocacy committee in rural Nebraska. She currently resides in Oregon. For more information, contact her at bcconrod@yahoo.com .

Comments

[Melissa]

Amen! I am an elementary school teacher in an unairconditioned building. The temp is going up to 101 today. It is like working in a sweatshop! In 2008, it goes without saying that every buisiness, office,store, etc has airconditioning. Why is it ok for us to suffer? We are not even given any fans for our rooms, we have to purchase those ourselves as well. We are always told we must create "an environment condusive to learning." We use our own money to create this environment-decorations,class libraries,couches for reading,etc. Yet we pack 28 seven-year-olds into a sauna for 8 hours... Ridiculous!

[Ron]

I don't recall schools being overly hot when I went to school but also don't live in an extremely hot climate. I do feel that if the school is uncomfortable for the teachers then it would be for the children, I sure couldnt focus on work if I spent my days sweating away! I dont know what the difference between heating and Cooling systems vs regular air conditioning? So long as the teachers and students are comfortable I don't think it matters which is installed so long as it does the job.

www.HeatingAndAirConditioningUSA.info