In Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order No. 2, mainly focused on masks in schools, the final directive hasn’t received the attention it deserves.
It reads: “School districts should marshal any resources available to improve inspection, testing, maintenance, repair, replacement and upgrades of equipment to improve the indoor air quality in school facilities, including mechanical and non-mechanical heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, filtering, purification, fans, control systems and window and door repair.”
Improving school ventilation as a mitigation measure against the spread of COVID-19 is a good, necessary and entirely appropriate directive from the governor. The science is clear that adequate indoor ventilation can make a real difference in the fight against this insidious virus.
The question, of course, is how.
How can underfunded school systems pay for radical improvements in ventilation systems? How can Virginia’s public schools — which are estimated to need a collective $25 billion in repair costs — be expected to “marshal the resources” to make these important changes? How can rural districts, already struggling to make ends meet, be asked to shoulder yet another expense?
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It’s important to note that the order says that school districts “should” pursue these initiatives, so it’s not quite an unfunded mandate from the governor. But it does raise a host of questions of just what the executive wants local school officials to do.
It’s also important to note that this isn’t the governor’s problem to solve by himself. The General Assembly holds the purse strings and it, along with each school district, bears the cost of paying for public schools.
While a focus on improved HVAC and ventilation is a noble goal, one expects that the governor and key leaders in the legislature will need to chart a path for how to get there — one that is needed soon.
It’s now clear that COVID-19 is here for good. Vaccines reduce its lethality and health care systems, using therapeutics and other treatment options, are better equipped to save lives. But short of something that prevents transmission, communities should expect to see future variants and waves of sickness.
Improving ventilation in public facilities, then, becomes an imperative. Not only will it help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, but better circulation and cleaner indoor air is likely to reduce our other airborne afflictions, such as influenza. It’s a sound investment in public health.
It’s also a costly one. Upgrading school HVAC systems to maximize ventilation and filter the air isn’t cheap. Neither is providing CO2 monitors to classrooms, which is a useful tool to ensure those systems are working properly. (And all of those fixes are more expensive than requiring masks in classrooms.)
When it comes to schools, equity across communities is essential. It would be wrong for the state to foist those costs on each district, or to allow wealthy localities to provide clean, well-ventilated air to students while leaving poorer communities to suffer.
So the state has an important role here, both in helping pay for these improvements but also in providing direction for individual districts.
School districts will need guidance. Most will need money. And they will need more than encouragement tacked on the end of an executive order.
No doubt, the new governor and his administration are well aware of that fact. And lawmakers already know well the poor state of schools across the commonwealth. Certainly, local officials need no reminders.
This, then, is an area ripe for bipartisan cooperation and progress. It’s an opportunity to set aside the infuriatingly political debate over masks and focus on long-term solutions that can dramatically improve public health while also helping the fight against coronavirus.
Virginians should do more than look for leadership on this issue. They should expect it, and soon.
— The Virginian-Pilot & Daily Press Editorial Board
— The Virginian-Pilot & Daily Press Editorial Board
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