The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Baltimore:
Teachers Fear the Heat

Aug 19, 2019

The Baltimore Teachers Union has been collecting cooling fans–and money for fans–to be used in school classrooms and offices. About 50 schools–almost one-third of all the public schools in the city–still lack proper heating and cooling even after years of protests by students, parents and teachers. As the climate gets warmer and warmer, conditions in schools without cooling systems can be more and more life-threatening.

According to officials, the school system is facing a 3-billion-dollar backlog in school upgrades, repairs, and new construction. It is only halfway through a 5-year-plan that is supposed to provide functioning heating, cooling and roofs that don’t leak to about two dozen schools.

City and state politicians have blathered about the disastrous condition of Baltimore schools for years. But for many decades, the schools have been underfunded in order to provide more money for lucrative, high-profit, sometimes no-bid, contracts–and for tax breaks and other subsidies to rich developers, corporations and banks.

The teachers are right to call attention to the deplorable state of many Baltimore schools. It’s a disgusting system when teachers have to use extraordinary measures to keep their students alive!