Update 9/29: ALL FIVE projects are now fully funded! Thanks Daily Kos community & The Inoculation Project for supporting these students and teachers through personal donations & by helping raise awareness so other donors (including a corporate donor) would kick in as well. The power of community is incredible! On behalf of the students and teachers who now have much better learning environments, thank you all!
I didn't originally set out to write this diary. I was browsing as I sometimes do on DonorsChoose.org, looking for a project to support. Different things catch my eye at different times: field trips, musical instruments, class gardens, school supplies, PE equipment, desks and chairs.
Today it was air conditioners. The project name caught me immediately:
Nobody Deserves a Learning Room over 100 Degrees F.
Well, no s**t. The teacher described trying to teach students through the noise of large fans, writing
Because of the economy and the budget cuts for education each year, our district cannot afford the installation of air conditioners in schools and every summer, we have to deal with sleepy kids, nose bleeds, some fainting, and difficulty concentrating, for both students and teachers.
I remember my junior high homeroom didn't have air conditioning. Luckily, we didn't have year-round school or summer session, but even in June and September it got rough in there. Education was the last thing on our mind when we were sweltering - we got goofy and lethargic all at once - and most of us were lucky enough to have air-conditioned cars coming to pick us up to take us to air-conditioned homes at the end of the school day.
The students in these high-poverty schools are mostly not so lucky.
I did a further search for "air conditioner" and found several teachers with the same need. Old schools in poor neighborhoods, stifling hot classrooms, students who are desperately just trying to stay cool. A little hard to move up Maslow's hierarchy when it's over 100F in the classroom!
This need seemed particularly appropriate and timely, given the massive heat wave sweeping large parts of the US right now (as described, for example, in Susan from 29's great diary).
Schools across the country desperately need to be upgraded and retrofitted, particularly in high-poverty neighborhoods, where the students already deal with so many other challenges that middle-class and upper-class students generally can't fathom. I firmly believe this construction should be supported by state, local, and federal taxes, and I have voted to increase my own taxes to support local school bond measures that repair and improve school buildings.
While changing nationwide tax policy to give all students a climate-controlled learning environment is a difficult achievement, it is not difficult to give a few dollars to help these teachers receive portable A/C units to help keep their classrooms manageable. We can make a difference! In the spirit of some great past diaries by hyperbolic pants explosion (that supported science projects in red states via DonorsChoose), I challenge the Daily Kos community to fully fund these five projects!
Classroom Over 100F Update: $574 Fully Funded!!
Too Hot To Learn Update: $555 Fully Funded!
Portable AC Unit for Special Needs Kids Update: $1033 Fully Funded!
Keep the Computer Lab Cool! Update: $568 Fully Funded!!
It's Too Hot In Here! Update: $358 Fully Funded!!
I will stop back and post updates...even a few dollars makes a big difference!
(disclaimer: I have no association with these teachers/classrooms/schools or with DonorsChoose - just trying to help out the kids & teachers)