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Major cities across the country have decided to close schools in the first days of the new academic year, send students home early or return to distance learning during the pandemic. Department of education blames climate change.
Decisions Cities like Philadelphia, Heat waves are affecting parts of the country in Baltimore and Cleveland, and some school buildings are experiencing extreme heat.
“No one is immune to the effects of climate change,” a DOE spokesperson told Fox News.
More than 100 schools in Philadelphia were dismissed early due to the weather. In Baltimore, 14 schools were dismissed early and two closed entirely. San Diego there were also those who were dismissed prematurely.
Some schools in Cleveland have switched to distance learning, though they are keeping classes in session.
“This move, made possible by our experience of providing devices to every student in the district, allowed those schools to stay in session and not have a disaster day,” the Cleveland Metropolitan School District said in a statement reported by local Fox8. .
The statement added that the school district’s Superintendent, Eric Gordon, called for an investigation into the possibility of using federal funding from the America’s Rescue Plan to purchase portable air conditioning units for schools that have been displaced.
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Apparently, the US Department of Education has already considered the implications climate change in the case of schools, allocating large sums of money to initiatives aimed at helping the external environment as well as the environment inside school buildings.
But that money is not there yet.
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Through the bipartisan Infrastructure Act, a $500 million grant program allows schools to use federal funding to “improve and upgrade energy efficiency, renewable energy and alternative fuel vehicles in public schools.” Among the eligible uses listed by the DOE: heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
Potential grantees had to respond to DOE’s request for information between April 4 and May 18, with an estimated application opening date sometime during the fourth quarter of 2022.
