![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
21-02-2023, 04:07 PM
By SHARON LURYE
yesterday
......
“There’s been times we’ve been cold, there’s been times we’ve been hot,” said Mentia Trippeter, a 17-year-old senior. “There’s been times where it rained and it poured, we’ve been drowning. We go through it — we go through it, man.”
Like other schools serving low-income communities across the country, Jim Hill has long dealt with neglected infrastructure that has made it harder for students to learn. So when Jackson Public Schools received tens of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief money, it decided to put much of the windfall toward repairing heating and plumbing problems
......
For poorer school districts, deciding what to do with that money has involved a tough tradeoff: work on long-term academic recovery or fix long-standing infrastructure needs.
......
the federal government has allocated US$190 billion in pandemic relief aid to help schools recover
......
the poorest districts in each state are far more likely than the richest districts to spend emergency relief funds on upgrading their buildings or transportation systems.
......
school officials didn’t want to miss a rare opportunity to fix infrastructure issues — some of which date back decades.
......
The school’s principal, Bobby Brown, said the money spent on infrastructure needs is very necessary — although not enough to address decades of inequity in the majority Black school system.
“As you listen to the students, and them having generations of families that have similar experiences,” Brown said, “this also sheds light on the types of investment that we have — or the lack of investment that we have in communities where people look like us.”
https://apnews.com/article/school-constr...2a63c18c59
yesterday
......
“There’s been times we’ve been cold, there’s been times we’ve been hot,” said Mentia Trippeter, a 17-year-old senior. “There’s been times where it rained and it poured, we’ve been drowning. We go through it — we go through it, man.”
Like other schools serving low-income communities across the country, Jim Hill has long dealt with neglected infrastructure that has made it harder for students to learn. So when Jackson Public Schools received tens of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief money, it decided to put much of the windfall toward repairing heating and plumbing problems
......
For poorer school districts, deciding what to do with that money has involved a tough tradeoff: work on long-term academic recovery or fix long-standing infrastructure needs.
......
the federal government has allocated US$190 billion in pandemic relief aid to help schools recover
......
the poorest districts in each state are far more likely than the richest districts to spend emergency relief funds on upgrading their buildings or transportation systems.
......
school officials didn’t want to miss a rare opportunity to fix infrastructure issues — some of which date back decades.
......
The school’s principal, Bobby Brown, said the money spent on infrastructure needs is very necessary — although not enough to address decades of inequity in the majority Black school system.
“As you listen to the students, and them having generations of families that have similar experiences,” Brown said, “this also sheds light on the types of investment that we have — or the lack of investment that we have in communities where people look like us.”
https://apnews.com/article/school-constr...2a63c18c59
