Poverty, racism, sub-standard housing, homelessness and failing schools are not a heavy enough burden to carry for minority youth in the United States. According to a study by Sara Grineski and Timothy Collins at the University of Utah, recently published in the academic journal Environmental Research, minority youth also attend schools with the highest levels of air-borne “neurotoxicants.”
Grineski and Collins studied rates for air-borne neurotoxicants at 84,969 U.S. public schools. They found that metropolitan New York City is the “geographic region most burdened by air neurotoxicant exposures.” One-third of all schools in the region are in the top 10% "high risk" category. Students attending these "high risk" public schools in New York and across the country are “significantly more likely to be eligible for free/reduced price meals, and to be Hispanic, black, or Asian/Pacific Islander.” Worse yet, “Schools serving the youngest students (e.g., pre-kindergarten) have greater levels of risk than schools serving older students.”
In New York City the worst pollution levels for particulate matter are in neighborhoods with heavy car traffic buildings that burn fossil fuels including areas in Manhattan and part of the Bronx. In recent years air pollution levels in New York City dropped because of federal rules regulating emissions from power plants. However pollutants will intensify if relevant federal regulations are relaxed or eliminated by the Trump administration.
Chronic exposure to neurological air toxics negatively affects a child’s brain functioning. Autopsies done on young people in Mexico City where pollution levels are especially high showed “brain structures resembling those with early stage Alzheimer’s disease.”
Another new study, published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, linked higher levels of air pollution to increased teenage delinquency. That study concluded, “ambient air pollution may increase delinquent behavior among 9- to 18-year-olds in urban neighborhoods in Greater Los Angeles.” According to Diana Younan of the University of Southern California and lead author of the study, “early exposure to lead disrupts brain development and increases aggressive behavior and juvenile delinquency. It’s possible that growing up in places with unhealthy levels of small particles outdoors may have similar negative behavioral outcomes.”
A 2011 study that focused on Michigan schools and published in the journal Health Affairs documented how “Exposing children to environmental pollutants during important times of physiological development can lead to long-lasting health problems, dysfunction, and disease.” The researchers found that “schools located in areas with the highest air pollution levels had the lowest attendance rates and the highest proportions of students who failed to meet state educational testing standards.”
If we are concerned with school achievement, equity and educational justice, the United States needs to spend more time testing air and water, and cleaning them up, than the high-stakes testing of children.
For the impact of testing on school curriculum and teaching, I recommend a new video posted by the Network for Public Education. It features Jesse Hagopian, a teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington and an editor of Rethinking Schools. In the video Hapogian shares a devastating classroom story.
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