NM students shouldn’t have to sweat it out

“... my kids’ middle school has no air,” a mother writes, responding to the question, “How would you rate the first week of school for your family?” in the Sunday Journal, Aug. 22.

Apparently some ventilation problems the Journal revealed in August 2019 have not been solved. At least one elementary school also went without air conditioning for three days. Yet the Journal joins the new N.M. secretary of public education, Kurt Steinhaus, in scorning those who advocate for effective HVAC in schools.

An Aug. 1 Journal editorial quoted Steinhaus as saying, “I want to see that money spent in a way that it creates a system of longterm improvement in New Mexico. Tutoring can do that. Teaching a kid to read can do that. A new HVAC system can’t.”

However, new or updated HVAC systems can save lives and help keep children and teachers healthy. CDC and EPA guidelines make clear that ventilation is key to preventing COVID’s spread. Michael Griffith and Allie Pearce discuss this in their piece, “The Air We Breathe: Why Good HVAC Systems Are an Essential Resource for Our Students and School Staff.” They write, “As many as 10 million students … may be at risk of heightened exposure to COVID-19 due to outdated and poorly functioning heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The risk is greatest in schools serving predominantly students of color and students from lowincome families, where districts typically lack the resources to repair or upgrade older, less healthy systems.” This sounds like Albuquerque and New Mexico.

In addition, learning in overheated classrooms, which has often been the case in Albuquerque — as the Journal reported Aug. 9, 2019, “Area schools feel the heat” — is difficult and at times, almost impossible. Much research demonstrates that rising temperatures affect cognition, behavior, test scores and more.

Liza Frenette, in a piece about school nurses, wrote, “Too much heat in a stifling classroom building can harm the body, with effects ranging from difficulty breathing, nausea and headaches to irritability and lack of focus.”

The Washington Post reports that R. Jisung Park, of UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation, “argues that heat is such an important factor that it could contribute to the achievement gap.” Perhaps overheated classrooms are one reason children have trouble learning in New Mexico.

Steinhaus and the Editorial Board, working from air-conditioned homes and offices, might have difficulty imagining an 8-yearold trying to solve a math problem in a 90-degree classroom while wearing a mask.

I encourage the board to follow up on the Journal’s 2019 story, to review extensive research about high temperatures’ impact on learning, to examine ventilation issues in New Mexico’s schools and to invite Steinhaus to join them in spending several hours, while masked, in overheated classrooms.

If Steinhaus and the board want to see “long-term improvement” in the education of New Mexico’s children, they must support updated HVAC systems.

Schools shouldn’t have to choose between effective HVAC and excellent teachers and tutors. New Mexico’s students deserve both.