Ralph Ratto is a retired teacher in New York State. In this post, he reminds readers of the importance of school ventilation systems, which are seldom in a good state of repair, and the necessity of paying to clean and upgrade them for the safety of students and staff.
He asks: Why is Congress willing to fund banks and big corporations but not the health of our nation’s children and their teachers.
If school ventilation systems fail to provide fresh air before Covid, what do you think will happen with Covid? So my question is really this, why haven’t school districts, and states remediated while school buildings were closed?
This is not rocket science! Clean those univents and filters in classrooms, install new ones where needed, and add exhaust fans.
Spacing desks 6′ apart is not enough, cleaning surfaces is not enough! If the air quality is poor all of that will not matter.
The Feds and states must pour money into our school infrastructure if they want to open the economy. Forget the corporate bailouts, for once in my lifetime I would love our nation to put schools at the top of a national priority and support them with the funding needed.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good morning Diane and everyone,
In New York, Governor Coumo mandated that shopping malls have air filtration systems that can filter the Covid virus. Why would shopping malls have to have this air filtration system and NOT schools? What is the reasoning behind this?
Because children don’t vote! Children are the “property” of parents who make money AND vote. Children are NOT considered people until they can cast a vote and own a credit card. Oh….and teachers are just expensive babysitters so that parents can go to work to keep the economy open. This country does NOT value it’s children and youth…..it exploits children for the sake of “the market”.
Cuomo is notoriously anti-public schools and pro-upper class. He is unwilling to adequately tax billionaires and routinely undermines public schools. He is not the nice guy he wants people to think he is.
Our youth are USED all the time. Too many look at our young is just another source of income or used to advance the adult in charge. THINK: CTE and sports.
Here’s one I just found out about last night.
Iolani Schools in Honolulu (a Catholic school) just sent a bunch of teen girls to play ball games in Las Vegas. This happened only a couple of days ago in the MIDST of an uptick re: Covid-19 infections.
One of the teens who went to Las Vegas to play ball for Iolani Schools is my grand niece. This teen’s grandmother worked as Chief Coroner for HPD and knows about infection diseases. Grandmother is upset and worried. Can’t blame her one bit. The father who is divorced from the mother of this teen is also upset. He said, “NO.” But, since this teen lives with the mother, well …
What so ridiculous about this situation is that the mother of this teen does Covid-19 testing.
So for several days those teens will be at risk while being in high risk places like airports, airplanes, hotels, restaurants, public restrooms, gyms, and other places of high contamination in Las Vegas. 🤯
And Hawai’i is in lock down again.
I hope Iolani Schools has good health insurance for those teens and their families. And I hope those families who allowed their daughters to put themselves and others at risk are prepared to deal with Covid-19 in the home should someone become infected. And all this just for sports.
DUH…stupid is as stupid does.
BTW, the Hawai’i State Dept. of Education and the University of Hawai’i has cancelled ALL travel for faculty and students.
Guess Iolani Schools thinks it’s immune.
Sorry, Iolani School is Episcopalian.
Youth sports is a 10 Billion (with a B) $$$$ business. I kind of liked that Covid put a full stop on youth sports. So many children were being injured due to the craziness of “coaches” and parents. We are “trying” for ice hockey this year, but the practices have been very limited and the game travel will only be in state. MD is being careful with reopening.
Sickening.
And even girls are getting head injuries. Good GAWD.
I have no idea why parents put their children in “HARM’s Way.”
Thanks For posting Diane.
One correction, I am a retired teacher now.
Thanks again.
Thanks, I will fix
Another ed reform debate where public school people are deliberately and carefully excluded:
https://www.the74million.org/article/reality-check-what-will-it-take-to-reopen-schools-amid-the-pandemic-8-experts-weigh-in-on-families-schools-students-diverse-needs/
Echo chamber. They seek to set policy for every public school, but they completely exclude any public school voices or advocates. No public school parent should accept this. The idea that the only people who can be “experts” are people who start charter schools or sell programs to public schools is nonsense.
Our schools and students do so poorly when ed reformers run government because our schools aren’t even at the table when these plans are made.
It’s just shameful they they bailed out airlines before they bailed out public schools.
What public schools got is what they always get- a “forum” where a bunch of professional politicians in the Trump Administration – people who didn’t attend public schools and don’t send their children or grandchildren to public schools- spent 4 hours haranguing public schools about what public schools need to do.
What do our political leaders need to do? Their only role in this is as professional public school critics? Do we really need MORE professional public school critics, given that we have an entire private sector billionaire funded ed reform movement to do those jobs?
Those billionaires own those politicians – hence the echoing remarks.
Even if the feds coughed up enough money to rebuild our public schools, it would take years to complete the job, not days, weeks, or months.
I teach in a large urban high school (2,600 hundred kids and 200 adults). Our HVAC system is almost 50 years old. There is rarely a day that goes by that people aren’t working on it in our building. Our rooms are either freezing cold or unbearably hot and stuffy. In the summer I have to run a space heater (paid for by me) and wear a down jacket. Then folks come in to work on the AC that is in overdrive. All is comfortable for a few days and then the heat comes back and we are sweltering in our classrooms. This is a cycle that goes on all year long. Freezing-Comfortable- Hot, repeat. We teachers are not in control of a thermostat. Our temperature is set from a building that is miles away. There is mold in the room and on the ceilings. I hear that there are similar problems all over my school district. In normal times, it is unpleasant, but we make do. I am fortunate that I can open a small window. My last classroom in the same building had no windows. I endured a windowless room for 3 years. Now it is beyond unpleasant to have a faulty HVAC, it is dangerous. Thank you for letting me vent (haha).
Great pun. And thank you for keeping it real.
Even with decent ventilation, putting children and adults in typical classrooms 5-6 hours per day is not a good idea – especially now that it is believed that some coronavirus-laden droplets can navigate the length of a room up to two times. How many child deaths is “acceptable”? How many teacher/support staff deaths are “acceptable”?
Exactly, Mr. Corley.
GEEZ, how about engaging the kids in COOKING and BAKING? So much can be learned from both. Lots of reading, math, science, and integration of the curriculum.
But then Betsy has never cooked in her life and has NO CLUE about anything.
I sure hope some day soon we get a decent Secretary of Education. Haven’ had a decent one in eons. Same with “HOUSING.”
Guess the politicians don’t give a rip about housing and educating it’s citizens. DUH …