Our position at the New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV) is that nothing is more important than the health of our children.
That’s why the NYLCV has signed on to the proposal called the Coalition for Healthier Schools. The coalition, established by our long-time partner, the Health Schools Network, based in Saratoga Springs, NY, sets forth federal and state goals for making our nation’s schools healthier for students and staff.
“Healthy buildings can create lasting benefits, sometimes at little or no extra cost,” the Coalition states in its position paper. “Unhealthy or dilapidated school buildings are well documented to erode children’s health, thinking, learning, and impact behavior and are expensive to remediate.”
The numbers show us how much is at stake. Every school day, 55 million children and seven million adults – about 20 percent of the American population – attend one of the 130,000 public or private schools somewhere in our country.
Study after study have shown that improving a school’s “indoor environmental quality improves attendance, academic performance, and staff productivity,” the Coalition sets forth, explaining that the key factors are having buildings that are clean, dry, quiet, with good indoor ventilation systems and proper temperature control.
The Centers for Disease Control recently reported that more than 40% of school-aged children and adolescents in America have at least one chronic health condition, such as asthma, obesity, other physical conditions and behavior/learning problems. This is a startling number.
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that at least a quarter of all schools report having problems with indoor air quality and/or ventilation at a time when fewer local and federal agencies are able to help. The result, the Coalition states, is a long list of unacceptable and unhealthy conditions:
- Indoor pollution
- Mold infestation
- Asbestos and radon exposure
- Lead paint exposure
Unhealthy drinking water is a problem in far too many schools as well.
All this leads to chronic health conditions for children, not only from asthma and obesity, but also from allergies, rashes, headaches, fatigues and nausea, as well as learning and behavior difficulties, all resulting in too many school absences.
The Coalition is urging all school districts, among other things, to:
- Adopt high performance school design and siting standards
- Promote and, if necessary, install high quality indoor ventilation systems
- Use safe, non-toxic cleaning products
- Use safe, non-toxic teaching tools
- Use safe, least-toxic pest control products
- Adopt standards for providing quality and natural lighting
- Adopt standards for providing good acoustic and noise control
The Coalition is urging the CDC, EPA, Department of Education and other federal agencies to properly fund and work together on a federal strategy for establishing and maintaining a healthy environment for all school children. This includes establishing green policies used nationwide for design, siting, construction and maintenance.
Likewise, the Coalition urges state and local governments and school districts to do the same thing. We encourage these governments and bodies to “promote, adopt, fund, and implement healthy, high performance school facility design and operations and maintenance in every state.”
“We have a moral obligation to protect all children … and [school] personnel,” the Coalition states.
It’s hard to disagree with that statement.
Peter Aronson, a volunteer writer at the New York League of Conservation Voters since September 2022, is a former journalist and retired attorney. He is the author of Mandalay Hawk’s Dilemma: The United States of Anthropocene, a novel for middle-grade readers about kids fighting global warming. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, wrote: “A scathing work and an essential blueprint for youth battling climate change.” To read more about Peter, visit his website www.peteraronsonbooks.com or to purchase his book, click here.