PODCAST EXEMPLAR: Air Conditioning in New York City

by Ms. Silverstein

When I think about the first day of school this year, there are a couple images that spring
straight to mind. The first student I met from my Crew. The chart paper I had hung up on the
board, with the Do Now written in bright red marker. But one image, and one feeling,
overshadows all the others. I’ll never forget the moment I looked up and read the temperature of
my classroom: 94 degrees.

Two years ago, in April 2017, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that $28.75 million
would be dedicated to making sure that every New York City classroom is air conditioned by
2022, a fix so sensible it’s shocking to me that it took until 2017 to happen (“Mayor de Blasio”).
According to New York City Councilman Bob Lander, over a quarter of NYC classrooms were
not air-conditioned at the time of this decision (Barnum). Two years after this announcement,
however, my students still spent the first weeks of class in stiflingly hot rooms. One day,
cardboard boxes full of blue, reusable water bottles arrived from the Department of Education
for us to hand out. And, that was it. On the top floor of the school building, we were desperate:
“It was so bad to the point where we would say oh let me have a heat stroke right now so they
can have an excuse to get ACs and tell the DOE to give us funding for ACs, cause it was just
such an unbearable environment at the time.”

That’s Kelssy, one of my 9th grade students. She remembers those first weeks of school as not
only miserable, but also incredibly harmful to learning: “There wasn’t a moment where you could
breathe normal, fresh air, like it was so hot, you would sweat just by sitting, and that heat does
not let you focus at all. It invades your brain, it’s like the heat is going into your brain and not
letting you focus on your reading and do your work cause all you’re focusing on is the fact that
you’re hot, all you can focus on is the heat around your body, and it’s just so hard that they’re
expecting you to do the work in such a difficult environment.”

The research agrees with her. Last year, the National Bureau of Economic Research released a
paper called “Heat and Learning”--one of the first major studies on the effects that a lack of air
conditioning can have on student learning (“Study Finds”). The paper’s findings are grim:
“without air conditioning,” it says, “each 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in school year
temperature reduces the amount learned that year by 1%,” with even more damaging effects for
low income and minority students (Goodman, et al.).

With climate change causing warmer weather every year, it’s imperative that no more students
are subjected to the loss of learning and health risks of extreme heat. Air conditioning is both
the best and simplest way to fix this injustice. Meanwhile, my students and I will watch June
approach with dread, hoping that it isn’t as unbearable as September.
 Works Cited

Barnum, Matt. “Too Hot to Learn: Records Show Nearly a Dozen of the Biggest School Districts
Lack Air Conditioning.” The 74 Million, www.the74million.org/article/exclusive-too-hot-to-
learn-records-show-nearly-a-dozen-of-the-biggest-school-districts-lack-air-conditioning/.
Goodman, Joshua, et al. “Heat and Learning.” NBER, 24 May 2018,
www.nber.org/papers/w24639.
“Mayor De Blasio Announces Every Classroom Will Have Air Conditioning by 2022.” NYC.gov,
25 Apr. 2017, www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/261-17
/mayor-de-blasio-chancellor-fari-a-city-council-every-classroom-will-have-air.
“Study Finds Hot Classrooms Hurt Learning.” VOA, VOA, 6 June 2018,
learningenglish.voanews.com/a/study-finds-hot-classrooms-hurt-learning/4424203.html.