"I would have allocated that money for air conditioning. But nobody asked me."

Eric Hitchner, an English high school teacher in Philadelphia, regarding the lack of air conditioning in his fourth-floor, 111-year-old classroom and how COVID-19 relief funds were spent on education tech, like smartboards, instead of cooling systems. Last September, when it was in the low 70s outside, Hitchner’s classroom was 86 degrees inside. Hitchner’s Philly school is one of the estimated 36,000 public schools nationwide that do not have adequate air conditioning. (NPR — Aug. 28, 2023)