Black Atlanta children are also more likely than their white counterparts to attend schools located in neighborhoods with facilities that report to the EPA under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program. They also face the highest health risk from schools that have in-door air problems or "sick schools." Poor air quality in schools has been linked to higher absenteeism and increased respiratory ailments, lower teacher and staff productivity, lower student motivation, slower learning, lower test scores, increased medical costs, and lowered lifelong achievement and earnings. According to the U.S. EPA, the concentration of air pollutants indoors is typically higher than outdoors, in some instances as high as 10 or even 100 times.
The 2009 Sick School report reveals that nearly half (48 percent) of Georgia's schools have at least one unsatisfactory environmental factor. At least 12.8 percent of Georgia's school-age children are without health insurance, meaning that it is highly unlikely that their daily environmental exposures are being effectively detected and addressed.
When construction plans deliberately design healthy indoor environments into conventional green school plans, the health benefits far outweigh energy and water savings ($63 to $11). Green schools may be built at cost, or at a very slight increment: on average almost 2 percent more, or $3 more per square foot, than conventional schools. The financial benefits of greening schools are about $70 per square foot, more than 20 times as high as the cost of going green.
Greening Atlanta Public Schools remains a challenge. In August 2009, the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) opened Springdale Park Elementary School, the district's first "green school" that serves about 400 kindergarten through fourth-grade students from the Druid Hills, Midtown, Poncey Highlands and Virginia-Highland neighborhoods who were redistricted from Morningside and Mary Lin elementary schools. The new green elementary school, nestled in the predominately white Druid Hills community, is seeking silver LEED certification for its environmentally friendly campus and programs, including a farm-to-school initiative from harvesting food grown in their rooftop garden, along with recycling and composting programs.
Even in a district where African Americans make up nearly 80 percent of the students and whites make up just 10.9 percent, Atlanta's majority black school board chose to launch its "green school" initiative in and affluent and mostly white community. Druid Hills is 84.15 percent white, 6.0 percent African-American, 0.16% Native American, 7.34 percent Asian, 0.07 percent Pacific Islander, 0.64 percent from other races, and 1.64 percent from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2.43 percent of the population. On the other hand, the demographics of Springdale Elementary School tell the true story of Atlanta's ground-zero school "greening," where 67.2 percent of the school's students are white, 14.8 percent are black, 8.2 percent are Hispanic, 6.3 percent are multi-ethnic, and 3.5 percent are Asian. Even when blacks are in control and in the majority on the school board, they manage to give white students the "best" that they have to offer.
Conclusion
The built environment, infrastructure, and environmental quality all have a direct impact on our health and well-being. Healthy places and healthy people are highly correlated. The poorest of the poor within Metro Atlanta have the worst health and live in the most degraded environments. Organizing around environmental and reproductive health is timely as new findings link toxic products, chemicals, and pollutants to the health of women and children--evidence that shows children are exposed to a host of dangerous chemicals while still in their mother's womb.
Students in Druid Hills deserve a "green school." Similarly, students in Atlanta's West End, Vine City/English Avenue and other black neighborhoods also deserve green schools, healthy foods, and other green programs that improve health and long-term sustainability. It is high time for the Atlanta School Board to give the same priority to greening black inner-city schools as it gives to mostly white and affluent school children. The academic and health benefits from investing in high performance green schools will payoff for the students and teachers--no matter what color or class.
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